BVT chairman John Parker says shipbuilder can be a world-beater

The joint venture uniting naval yards owned by BAE Systems and VT Group hopes to expand beyond its £4 billion aircraft carrier contract IN 1977 the Callaghan government nationalised the country’s shipyards, creating British Shipbuilders, an industrial monolith that swallowed up famous names such as Cammell Laird, Swan Hunter and Vickers. Like all European shipbuilders, it struggled for work in the aftermath of the 1970s oil shock and was eventually broken up and privatised by Margaret Thatcher. Second-in-command at the ill-fated enterprise was John Parker, who had come up at Harland and Wolff, the Belfast yard that built the Titanic. Thirty years on and Parker, now Sir John, is again back at the top of a unified British shipbuilding group. He was recently confirmed as chairman of BVT, a joint venture that unites the naval... [read full story]