A MAKER of luxury yachts on Southampton Water is on a recruitment drive to find skilled tradespeople.

Oyster Yachts has been building bluewater sailing boats of 50ft and 125ft in the area since the late 1980s.

It says the yachts are “meticulously hand crafted from exceptional material by the industry’s most skilled craftsmen and women”.

Nathalie Fox, head of human resources at Oyster Yachts, said: “We are looking to expand the Oyster family with a recruitment drive to find boat builders, skilled joiners and the other trades particularly in the Southampton area.

“Oyster Yachts offers comprehensive and competitive employment packages and a great working environment. There is also an added incentive of sign-on bonuses for all the production roles,” she added.

“We offer a competitive salary, overtime at enhanced rates as well as an employee assistance programme, and critically an extensive order book that will provide job security for years to come.

“The ideal profile would be an individual who has worked within a small to medium sized business, or indeed someone who may have set up their own business and now looking to get back into the industry.

“Quite simply we are after people that can pick up the tools and hit the ground running.”

Oyster Yachts operates out of two key sites in Southampton – one at Saxon Quay, Northam, and a new facility at Hythe Marine Park.

The company also has manufacturing bases in Wroxham and a specialist technology centre in Ashmanhaugh, both in Norfolk.

The company says the new premises at Hythe have increased the existing facilities by 70 per cent.

The company was awarded the title Employer of the Year by City College Southampton in 2021 and has invested in developing local talent creating its own Oyster Apprenticeship Academy.

Oyster Yachts was saved from liquidation by British businessman Richard Hadida in 2018.

By January 2020, it was announcing plans to hire 150 more tradespeople, including 50 in Hampshire, and in December that year it advertised another 130 jobs.