Interview: Shipyard takeover on Fehmarn - Philipp Schaich on his lifelong dream
Lasse Johannsen
· 08.01.2023
Philipp Schaich has been in charge of the former Beelitz shipyard on Fehmarnsund for four years. He is supported by his wife and now eleven employees. For Schaich, who comes from Hamburg and grew up in the Rhineland, his journey to the Sound began as a child. Even as an Opti child on the Braunkohlesee, he dreamed of building boats, did internships at shipyards as a schoolboy, trained in traditional wooden boatbuilding after leaving school and then studied yacht design in southern England. This was followed by several years at Judel/Vrolijk, where Schaich worked for Hanse, engagements, including for X-Yachts, and self-employment in boatbuilding in Stralsund. In this interview, Schaich explains how he ended up at the traditional shipyard on Fehmarnsund, what it means to take over such a business and what hurdles he had to overcome.
Mr Schaich, you set up your own business in Stralsund back in 2009. What prompted you to look for a new location?
I didn't have a waterfront site for my business and had always wanted to change that. There were also various options in Stralsund. I even made plans for two properties, drafted concepts and spoke to banks, but both were cancelled by the city. Then I started looking nationwide. That's how we ended up here.
How do buyers and sellers of a yacht yard find each other?
In this case via a box number advert in "Bootswirtschaft", the members' magazine of the German Boat and Shipbuilders' Association, which I placed. I received the message that a shipyard on the Baltic Sea was being offered and signed a non-disclosure agreement. When I found out what it was all about, I was immediately hooked and arranged a viewing.
Which has obviously strengthened your enthusiasm ...
First of all, I was impressed by the size of the property. Everything was there: Harbour, crane, workshop, paint shop, storage area, open-air warehouse, office. My first thought was to move in and get started.
It then took another two years before you started here.
Yes, two years of ups and downs, lots of planning and calculations, numerous negotiations and discussions with banks. This led to the usual delays.
What stopped you the most?
The talks with the bank - and we negotiated the price for a long time. There was also another interested party. But it was important to the seller that the boatbuilding site was retained. There are numerous examples of shipyards that have disappeared because beautifully located residential space was realised. And that was not what the seller wanted, for which we are very grateful.
What did the bank make its approval dependent on?
I had to plan concretely, develop a concept, the famous business plan. I was able to benefit greatly from the preliminary work from Stralsund. And because of the confidentiality agreement, I now had the figures from the last three years available for the calculation, which is standard business practice in such cases. The bank then asked where the orders came from, how good the capacity utilisation would be and where the employees came from.
Was it difficult to give convincing answers?
No, but there was a lot of scrutiny and we were confronted with many issues. In retrospect, however, these were almost all questions that were very justified. As a result, I had to deal with a lot of things that I would otherwise have said, we've already done that in Stralsund, it's not a problem.
Can you give a specific example of this?
Yes, the question of employees, for example, was answered on half a page in the business plan back then. But today it's a huge issue. The much-cited shortage of skilled labour caused us huge problems and it took a long time to build up a team. There was also only one employee here that we were able to take on.
Were there any positive surprises?
There were indeed. The berths here were not fully utilised. And during the coronavirus period, the harbour was suddenly packed. We suddenly had completely different turnover than planned. Despite all the misfortune of this pandemic, that was a real boost for our start.
How should we visualise the takeover of a shipyard in practical terms?
As with every property purchase, there was a notary appointment - in December 2018 - for which several things had to be clarified and provided. But then we received the keys and got started.
With what first?
We started by sorting and tidying the inventory. The first few weeks were difficult. We first had to make personal contact with all our customers and acquire new orders. And in the beginning, we still had the plan to continue running our workshop in Stralsund.
So you didn't move the whole company?
No, we only took two employees with us. We had a very good operations manager in Stralsund and twelve employees who were working on a large project. The business was running. But in our business, you have to be on site and canvass and personally look after orders. That was no longer possible for me, so we focussed on Fehmarn, gradually scaled back in Stralsund and closed the business at the end of 2020.
What were the biggest challenges at the new location at the beginning?
First of all, all the formalities. It started with the fact that I had to sign that I would not hold anyone liable if damage was caused by suction and waves because this is a federal waterway. Large vehicles rush through here. But that's my problem. Then came the employers' liability insurance association and the labour inspectorate ...
That doesn't sound very enthusiastic!
The employers' liability insurance association didn't cause any problems. I rang them myself and told them what I was planning. Someone then came round and talked to me about how to do it. It went much more smoothly than I had expected.
And the labour inspectorate?
She also visited and listened to what we were planning. And then came a report with everything that needed to be considered: from the direction of my desk to fire extinguishers and the lifebuoys at the harbour to various purchases. When I calculated the cost of the three pages, I couldn't believe it. We then hired an external occupational safety officer, who comes here regularly and makes sure that all the test seals and TÜV approvals are up to date and everything else related to the topic. And then, of course, we received a lot of letters because contracts were in progress - about the TÜV inspections for cranes and wheel loaders, the electrical equipment, the electrical system in the harbour ...
... and presumably the insurance company got in touch?
We also changed them as part of the takeover.
And do you feel as comfortable at the new location as you had hoped?
Yes, but getting to know a site like this, finding out what works and what doesn't, that takes time. And you have to approach changes with a great deal of sensitivity. It's practically a natural harbour, embedded in the landscape. Everything has grown very slowly.
In hindsight, should you have done anything differently?
With the experience we have today, we would approach such a project differently, yes. We always worked towards the next step and continued from there. Today, we would ask more questions straight away.
What does your day-to-day work at the shipyard look like today, and what are your plans for the future?
In terms of boatbuilding, we have two mainstays. On the one hand, there is the traditional work on classic yachts and, of course, the maintenance and repair of modern GRP yachts. We are now also registered as a paint shop and want to expand this area in the future. And of course we offer new builds, as we have already done in Stralsund.
Info: the boatyard Beelitz - Martin - Schaich
Robert Beelitz's shipyard was built on the site of the former Fehmarnsund ferry harbour in 1967. Here, the boat builder continued a business founded by his father in 1883 as a boat hire company on Berlin's Wannsee, which had become a renowned boatyard by the Second World War. On Fehmarn, Beelitz built wooden sailing and motor yachts. In 1982, the business was transferred to the third Beelitz, who sold it to Josef Martin in 2007. The shipyard became a branch of the Martin shipyard in Radolfzell on Lake Constance until Philipp Schaich acquired the site in 2019 and set up his Schaich boatyard there.
