Stakeholder Relationships and Engagement

Directors should foster effective stakeholder relationships aligned to the company’s purpose. The board is responsible for overseeing meaningful engagement with stakeholders, including the workforce, and having regard to their views when taking decisions.

The importance of good governance and effective communication is recognised by the Board. During 2023, continued efforts to communicate with all our stakeholder community including shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers and the local communities in which we operate is critically important for the day-to-day running of the business and the need to protect the Company’s brand, reputation and relationships.

The Board is committed to ensuring that the Company plays its part as a good corporate citizen, be that through social responsibility, community engagement or environmental sustainability. It achieves this in part through its “Don’t Walk By” culture (ensuring the safety, health and wellbeing of everyone who works with us); looking to create a positive environmental and social impact; being a valued employer where everyone is valued and respected. PYL is also committed to supporting local charities and is actively engaged within the local community. Specifics relating to various stakeholders are detailed below.

Community & Region

During 2023, we continued the local partnerships previously established. The results of which have been improved community awareness and an uplift in staff engagement.

Exeter Chiefs

Exeter Chiefs is an English professional rugby union club based in Exeter, Devon who play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division. The sponsorship of this team, provides a small number of tickets to staff at a discount for its home games, with the ticket cost then going towards added funds raised for our principal charity, Promoting Children in Plymouth (PCiP).

Plymouth Argyle

Plymouth Argyle is an EFL football club, newly promoted to the Championship, with a mission to engage with the local community through sport. Again during 2023, Argyle will offer over 1,000 opportunities for Princess staff to attend matches, they will host team building activities with employees, provide mascot opportunities and places at half term courses for PYL employees’ children. Again, discounted ticket cost have been used to raise funds for PCiP.

Plymouth Albion

Local to Princess Yachts’ Newport Street and South Yard factories, Albion is Plymouth’s local rugby union club. As a ‘Key Partner’, we sponsor coaching, match day events and summer clubs for local children and employees. The partnership also provides PYL employees with match tickets for all home games.

Promoting Children in Plymouth Charity (PCiP)

This local charity collaborates and brings together private, public, charitable and educational sectors to facilitate effective, long-lasting projects that can make a difference to improve a young person’s future. The Company’s Senior Legal Counsel sits on the PCiP working group providing valuable knowledge and advice to the group and creating a two-way link between PYL and PCiP. During 2023, PYL also supported through CSR activities including reading to primary school children on World Book Day, work experience for secondary school aged children and a supplier golf day raising further funds through our supply chain network. By working with PCiP to help eradicate child poverty in Plymouth and by raising the aspirations and achievements of under-privileged young people, PYL will be investing back into the community by providing opportunities for the young people of Plymouth.

THEATRE ROYAL PLYMOUTH (TRP)

During 2023, the Company changed the sponsorship offering with the theatre in favour of supporting the ‘Playhouse Project’. This is a national partnership between 4 theatres, including TRP and it enables primary school aged children to access the arts, developing their acting and oracy skills and gain a growth in mindset through this programme. The project sees children learn and perform high quality, age-appropriate plays within the TRP Drum Stage.

Regional and National Business

The Company plays a full and active role in supporting the business community both in the South West and nationally. This works to help spread best practice and continue business and economic growth to the benefit of our employees and community in general. Members of the Board sit on the Regional Council and the Manufacturing Council of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the Plymouth Growth Board, British Marine Federation, the National Shipbuilding Office, Destination Plymouth, the Great South West Partnership Board and the Plymouth Employment and Skills Board. The Company is also a patron of the Devon & Plymouth Chamber of Commerce.

In addition to these partnerships, the Company will continue its support and interact with the Marine Conservation Society and the West Country 100 Club, a collection of businesses in the South West who support the rehabilitation of ex-Royal Marine Servicepeople. Full details of all of the Company’s partnerships are detailed on the PYL website.

Full details of all of the Company’s partnerships are detailed on the PYL website.

Suppliers

Strong supplier relationships are central to our corporate governance framework, ensuring that ethical standards and sustainability goals are upheld across the supply chain. The Board remains committed to engaging with suppliers in a collaborative and transparent manner, fostering long-term partnerships that are mutually beneficial. The Company maintains regular communication with key suppliers to ensure alignment on quality, innovation and compliance with our environmental and social responsibility standards. Additionally, we conduct periodic reviews and audits to assess supplier performance and ensure adherence to our supplier code of conduct. By working closely with our suppliers, we aim to build a responsible supply chain that supports the company’s overall strategic objectives and enhances value for all stakeholders.

Distributors

PYL’s activities create the commercial environment in which our Distributor partners strive to operate profitable and sustainable businesses. Every major Distributor in our global network participates in an individual Annual Business Review attended by the Directors. The review meetings focus on key performance indicators across sales, aftersales, marketing, finance and business development. The output being a 5-year business plan for each Distributor. A “Heads of Business” conference brings together the entire global network of Distributors and their appointed Sub-Dealers at least once every two years. The conference provides the platform for the PYL Board to communicate the brand strategy and future product strategy. It is also the forum to invite feedback on market developments and the effectiveness of our policies and practices. An area which continues to be of particular focus is sanctions and export controls, where we have been working closely with our global Distributors to ensure compliance with UK, EU, US and UN regulations.

Customers

PYL provides support to the Princess Distributor Network, 3^rd party service agents and yacht owners/crew. This includes, but is not limited to, warranty, product safety, parts supply, technical support and product training. We track and monitor data within our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to manage all aftermarket issues. The data from the CRM system provides feedback to the business on product quality and performance which can in turn bring about design, engineering or manufacturing changes in current or future product as appropriate.

Learning and Development

PYL partners with providers to deliver apprenticeship programmes including South Devon College, Plymouth City College, Plymouth University, MBB and Accredited Training. PYL continues to embed apprenticeship programmes as part of its succession planning. We have dedicated leadership pathways including both CMI qualifications and our internally designed management development programme. We offer work experience placements each year to local schools and we also partner with local schools and colleges to take part in their careers’ fairs and also specific career presentations. We have a dedicated compliance training team to ensure that our employees remain legally compliant to carry out their roles and we audit and maintain a database of all training records. We deliver a suite of internal and external training programmes specific to role.

Workforce

The Company has a good working relationship with the Works Committee (WC). The WC is a formal recognition agreement with Unite the Union and covers shop floor employees (c2,600). The WC is made up of 8 elected representatives who cover each of the 5 sites. In addition to the WC we have 13 Health, Safety & Environment representatives. The relationship with Unite (and its predecessor unions) has been in place for 30+ years. In 2019 a new recognition agreement was signed by PYL and Unite setting out our working relationship going forward and how we would continue to ‘work in partnership’. We also have regular dialogue at a regional level within Unite to ensure that we are working as collaboratively as possible. The Company consults with the WC on a wide range of areas including pay, terms & conditions, policies and Health & Safety. The Company also have c550 office-based support roles across a range of functions including Management, IT, HR, Finance & Purchasing.