The Grand Harbour's Melita shipyard has registered a 21 per cent increase in turnover, its managing director has announced. 

The shipyard group, which has invested in the local yaching service industry for the past 27 years, has also concluded project contracts worth millions of euros already in hand up to March 2017. 

The group has a number of awards under its belt including the Detroit Diesel Corporation Distributor of the year 1998, Superyacht Excellence 2007, MTU Distributor of the year 2012 and the Captain’s Superyacht Services Guide 2016.

"Melita Marine Group invested millions of euros in its floating dock facilities to be able to service even superyachts of up to 100 metres," said managing director Pierre Balzan. This is now returning an exponential growth in demand for yachting services and

"This is now returning an exponential growth in demand for yachting services and consequently well-paid employment, turnover and investment in future manpower," said Mr Balzan.

He said business had been especially brisk in the first six months of the year. 

Melita Marine already employs over 100 people including apprentices and a specialised yacht painting team; together with other specialist-approved sub-contractors this amounts to over 140 people.

The group is recruiting additional personnel to meet the surplus in demand and provides training of personnel in specialist fields both in Malta and Europe, as well as additional apprentice training in all departments.

Sizeable yachts tend to stay in Malta for anything between 1 and 6 months, depending on the services they require, with an average crew size varying between 20 to 60.