Perry Slingsby Systems closing shop in USA

[James McLauchlan]

Just blew in in from across the Atlantic……

It seems that Perry Slingsby Systems will soon be closing down it’s USA operations and operating solely from it’s existing base in Kirkbymoorside, York, U.K.

[mind-when-this-was-fields]

Yep james,
I can confirm that one as fact.
Heard from one of the US employees that they will be moving all production to the UK.
But Jupiter will remain open as some form of subsea R+D department.
All spares and product support will move to Houston.

[Scott Beveridge]

Anyone have any more details as to the whos, whats, and whys

[Rons_ROV_Links]

Here

[Scott Beveridge]

Thanks Ron!

Slow sales???? Where??? Hmmmm…. doesn’t add up. Could it be cheaper labor?

[Pascobalbodeano]

Any chance of being able to ditch the imperial spanner sets yet?

Theres no way the labour is cheaper in the uk thats for sure. Although it is rather strange i must admit. Is it a god thing i’m not sure! Although i did hear an interesting story when perry and sa first merged. Perry KM wanted to build electric vehicles so they tried using SA stuff. Needless to say, SA still do electric and perry KM do hyds.

Hope all is well

pascobal Bodeano.

[Chris Clark]

Big mistake by Triton Group…….I guess the +$250 million that the Jupiter plant grossed in the last 3 years wasn’t enough to support the lavish spending of the UK-based Triton Group.
What’s missing here is that these clowns think they can replace the Jupiter team (120 very talented people) and build the Triton XLX in Kerbymoorside and achieve the quality vehicle. They are sadly mistaken. The Perry ROV was born years ago in Florida and continously improved over the years and is the goose that lays the golden egg for the Triton Group and has been paying the salaries of the UK branch for years!!

The best product on the market was made in Jupiter. Everybody knows this. Good Luck to you Triton Group. You have already lost customers as a result of this. Simply put, England can’t make what we make.

It’s too bad that the Triton Group management lacked the basic business sense after they took over the company from Technip. The first thing they did was to buy 8 companies and take on massive debt, not smart in this economy. This is a tragedy for a lot of families in S. Florida.

[HelpMaBoab]

Deary Me BarnacleBill,
A lot of big claims from you, basically decrying the whole of the British workforce with your Purile remarks.
Save your bile for the Triton management.
Oh by the way the last 4 new XLS systems we took out of PSSL (UK) worked faultlessly.
Oh, another thing, It is spelt Kirkbymoorside,

To be honest I thought it strange this descision was made, but evidently Trident think Kirkbymoorside have a bigger product potrfolio.

[Chris Clark]

Sorry HelpMaBoab-not my intention to bash British workforce, just the daft decision making of Triton Group and their fiscal irresponsibility. The team at Kirbymoreside are some good chaps, it’s just that the work class ROV’s are a product of the Jupiter facility, all the vehicles that have come out of the UK so far have been all kitted up in Jupiter and sent for assembly in UK. They are going to have problems when they go at it all on there own, especially with the new XLX and the advanced control systems (just ask Clough about there 2 PSSL vehicles).
Yes ,they have a bigger portfolio, but nothing that makes money.

Oh well, guess I’ll go on the dole or flip burgers at Mickee Dees.

[HelpMaBoab]

Okeydokey Bill, understand how you are feeling, I was in PSSL for FAT’s when the Clough XLX’s were getting built, they were having some problems right enough, but I think they were the first ones they stuck together. Software was the big issue.
As I said it was a shock to here Jupiter closing down, since they have been building ROV’s since I started S,O,S 1981 (Recons)

Cheers

[Nigel Lewis]

Just spotted this Topic and was surprised by the date, I was just over in Jupiter (US) and not long after in Kirbymoorside (UK) and they were still building in both. The Jupiter operation was reduced from when I was last there although most of the engineers were still there and some ROVs definitely were being built, (plenty were going together in UK and looked easily good enough for me).
It sounds like they have moved a lot over to their Houston operation so doubt it will be long before ROVs are coming out of there as well, if they aren’t already. Thats a pretty good set up, I was there a few years ago, they’ve got a decent size building with engineers, fitters, techs, etc, yes building stuff not just salesman.
Regarding Slingsbys, ever since I’ve known them they’ve been producing work class ROVs and good ones, always considered them the rolls royce but didnt churn them out like Perrys so weren’t as many out there, and obviously its not as warm during FATs, but the beers good.
Slingsbys had a good few modern CNC machines in their machine shop which has always been bigger than Perrys, good welding shop and their E-shop guys were beavering away wiring trays and J-boxes, didnt look like kits to me. Wonder where they got there kits from before joining with Perrys??? Anyway I thought Perrys were mainly kits.
Last year was the worst for the industry in a while, just sounds like hard but sensible planning to me, rather than risk everything going down the pan if things didnt pick up.
Are you still there Bill, have you moved to Houston? Any updates from within… if not I’m sure you’ll have a good time offshore

[Ray Shields]

I first visited Slingsbys in Kirkbymoorside in 1985 to do a course on their TA9 manipulator.

Before they started on ROVs they used to build small planes and airship gondolas there, so they have a good engineering background. Some of the guys I met back then are STILL working there 🙂

[Scott Beveridge]

I first visited Slingsbys in Kirkbymoorside in 1985 to do a course on their TA9 manipulator.

Before they started on ROVs they used to build small planes and airship gondolas there, so they have a good engineering background. Some of the guys I met back then are STILL working there 🙂

Ray,

That’s good to hear that the grandfathers are still around…. That in itself speaks volumes!

You actually did a course for TA9’s????

[Ray Shields]

I first visited Slingsbys in Kirkbymoorside in 1985 to do a course on their TA9 manipulator.

Before they started on ROVs they used to build small planes and airship gondolas there, so they have a good engineering background. Some of the guys I met back then are STILL working there 🙂

Ray,

That’s good to hear that the grandfathers are still around…. That in itself speaks volumes!

You actually did a course for TA9’s????

Yeah? didn’t anyone else?? We had 2 x TA9 manipulators on an ROV called Cutlet (now to be found in the Submarine Muesum in Portsmouth), when we took over the ROV, we found this plastic tube with a spring in it full of mud – this tuned out to be the compensator and the mud WAS the comp oil! Replacing feedback pots and circuit boards that had eaten themselves to death became common place for the first few months 🙂

[microfish]

I have worked with Perrys, Hydrovison (SMD), OII dinosaurs (yes included the Maxximum) and the Schilling UHD’s and I would recommend to anybody to quit buying anything else and go for the Schillings, the UHD’s are nice! customer service is great, those subs really perform! bye bye Perry! nice to see you!

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