Another 40 jobs including managerial posts could go at luxury boat builder Princess Yachts following a reduction in wholesale boat orders.

The company, which has seen 240 redundancies in the production department over the last year, said it was “regrettably entering a consultation process that may result in a small number of redundancies”.

Princess Yachts said taking these steps now would ensure the company “remains strong, sustainable, and resilient for the long-term future” but it added the decision had not been taken lightly.

The company had recently seen a softening in forward orders from its global distributor network, despite a positive uplift in retail sales this year, it said.

“This reflects wider economic and market conditions that continue to influence discretionary spending and business confidence.

“In response, we are taking prudent steps to align our operations with current and projected demand.”

The job losses would represent less than two per cent of its workforce of 2,889 and impact salaried and management positions.

It follows a redundancy plan announced just before Christmas last year which resulted in 240 production staff losing their jobs due to “challenging market conditions” .

The year 2023 saw the company make a £23 million loss but after implementing an “ambitious business turnaround” it made a profit of £4.9 million last year.

It said it had delivered on returning the company to “sustainable profitability”.

“We take extremely seriously our responsibility to safeguard the long-term success of the business for the sake of all of our employees, supplier and distributor partners and our customers,” said Princess Yachts.

“We remain fully committed to our people, customers, and partners, and continue to focus on delivering world-class yachts and exceptional service.”

Mark Richards from trade union Unite, which represents a number of staff at Princess Yachts, said the new announcement was not a surprise as the company had to adjust its boatbuilding programme for 2026 and was just “aligning the costs”.

He said he hoped some of the staff affected would be retained and return to the shop floor.

“We are trying to reduce the number, we think there will be about 40 affected,” he said.