Harland & Wolff, the Belfast-based shipyard, has recently signed a  £ 1.6 billion contract to build three support ships for the Royal Navy in partnership with Spanish state-owned Navantia. The shipyard built more than 1,600 ships, including the RMS Titanic. The last ship built by the yad was delivered in 2003.

UK Daily News reports that three years ago, John Wood, chief executive of London-based energy company InfraStrata, bought the company out of receivership for £ 6 million. The manager found eight-foot-tall weeds in the yard and recalls colleagues’ disbelief that the Harland & Wolff company, founded in 1861, could be raised from the dead. 

“We got a chance here… This relationship isn’t just for a program, this relationship is for the future,” said Wood from an office overlooking the giant yellow cranes, dubbed Samson and Goliath, that have been dotting the Belfast skyline for a while dominate for half a century. 

Wood is optimistic about the role that Harland & Wolff will play alongside its larger Spanish partner in the consortium.

Navantia will “oversee and hold our hand and make sure we’re doing things right,” he said. With the rising construction and energy costs that the company has on its side, “the risk is really completely reduced for us,” he added.

The naval contract, which Wood said would be 60 percent British sourced, is expected to result in a fivefold increase in the 210-strong workforce with the creation of 900 jobs.

The consortium will invest £77m to modernize Harland & Wolff’s four sites, with the majority being spent on upgrading the Belfast shipyard. Two shipyards in Scotland and one in Devon have been added since purchasing the Northern Ireland business in 2019.

Construction of the naval supply ships is scheduled to begin in 2025, with all three to be completed by 2032. By then, Wallace is expecting a massive £4 billion government program to revitalize Britain’s shipbuilding industry and build 150 ships over the next three decades, bringing more work to Belfast.