The Bremen-based shipbuilding company Dörries Yachts is considering the construction of a new hall on the site of the Stralsund Volkswerft shipyard. Originally, the plans were to be realized in Bremerhaven.
The German yacht builder Dörries Yachts is planning to build a large shipbuilding hall on the Volkswerft maritime business park in Stralsund. The company plans to invest around €20 million in this project. The leasehold agreement for an 8,600m2 area in front of the southern slipway in front of building 900 is currently being drawn up. This became known during a non-public meeting of the shipyard committee of the Hanseatic City of Stralsund. A final decision must now be made by the citizens of the Baltic city.
Dörries Werft GmbH & Co. KG, part of Bremen-based Dörries Yachts Group and registered in the commercial register in Bremerhaven, requires new production space and the corresponding shipbuilding infrastructure for the design, construction, manufacture, conversion and maintenance of civilian vessels — a project expected to involve an investment of around €20 million.
A 120 m long and 35 m wide hall is to be built for this purpose, which will require a connection to the rail network of the existing ship transport system and thus access to the shipyard’s ship lift, as reported by the newspaper Ostsee-Zeitung. Storage and open spaces are also required. It is also said that this move will strengthen the medium-sized shipbuilding industry in Stralsund. Dörries Yachs is said to have opted for the location in Stralsund as there is less and less suitable shipbuilding space in Germany.
Ambitious plans in Bremerhaven
However, Dörries already had such plans in Bremerhaven five years ago, which had probably already been approved. In the immediate vicinity of the Heise shipyard on the east side of Bremerhaven’s fishing port, Dörries actually wanted to implement a new construction project on the same scale as the one now planned in Stralsund.
At the time, the port operator Bremenports had to renovate the 180 m long quay known as “Kaje 82” in front of the site at a cost of over €6 million. This project was completed several years ago, but no construction activity has been seen on the site to date.
Dörries wanted to invest a total of around € 16.5 million in Bremerhaven. This involved the construction of two production halls for the new construction of yachts up to 120 m long and the construction of an office wing. The aim of the new building project was also to relocate the sales and accounting departments, which are located in Bremen, to Bremerhaven. The project drawings for the new building in Bremerhaven are still published on the Dörries Yachts website. But nothing has happened there so far. In the meantime, the company has moved its previous Bremerhaven office from Hoebelstraße to a commercial property in the street Am Lunedeich 147; insiders report that this might just be a postal address.
Cooperation with Ostseestaal
The Stralsund location is no coincidence for Dörries, as the company has been working with Ostseestaal for years in the yacht newbuilding and conversion sector. This business relationship could now be expanded in the immediate vicinity. There are also plans to relocate the company headquarters to Stralsund with the construction of the shipbuilding hall.
In addition to Dörries Yachts, there will be two other new tenants for the Volkswerft business park in the short term. One is the SLV welding training and testing institute. Training and further education courses are to start here. The Volkswerft used to have its own welding training workshop. In addition, the pump technology company is moving from Altefähr to Stralsund.
Dörries says it has around 30 permanent employees. They manage the projects and supervise the construction of new buildings and conversions. Many suppliers are involved, Dörries buys in additional services. Yacht building has a lot to do with manual work and customization. Up to 250 employees were involved when Dörries fitted out the 100-metre-long mega yacht “Ulysses” in the fishing port in Bremerhaven. The core segment that the company has been serving since 2014 is yachts up to 60 m long. This is a gap in the market in Germany.
