Upper Clyde Shipbuilders
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| Private | |
| Industry | Shipbuilding |
| Fate | Liquidated |
| Successor |
Govan Shipbuilders Scotstoun Marine Ltd Yarrow Shipbuilders Marathon (Clydebank) |
| Founded | 1968 |
| Defunct | 1972 |
| Headquarters | Fitzpatrick House, Cadogan Street, Glasgow, Scotland Alexander Stephen House, Linthouse, Glasgow (from 1969) |
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Key people
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Number of employees
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13,000 |
| Subsidiaries |
Clydebank Division Govan Division Linthouse Division Scotstoun Division Simons and Lobnitz Yarrow Shipbuilders (Until April 1970) |
Upper Clyde Shipbuilders (UCS) was a Scottish shipbuilding consortium created in 1968 as a result of the amalgamation of five major shipbuilders of the River Clyde. It entered liquidation, amidst much controversy, in 1971. This event led to a "work-in" campaign at the company's shipyards, involving the shop stewards Jimmy Airlie and Jimmy Reid among others.
The Company was formed in February 1968 from the amalgamation of five Upper Clyde Shipbuilding firms: Fairfield in Govan (Govan Division), Alexander Stephen and Sons in Linthouse (Linthouse Division), Charles Connell and Company in Scotstoun (Scotstoun Division) and John Brown and Company at Clydebank (Clydebank Division), as well as an associate subsidiary, Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd, in which UCS held a controlling stake of 51%.
This consolidation was a result of the Geddes Report, published in 1966, and the subsequent Shipbuilding Industry Act 1967 (sponsored by the Minister of Technology, then Anthony Wedgwood Benn) which recommended rationalisation and horizontal integration of shipbuilding in the United Kingdom into large regional groups, aided with grants from the state Shipbuilding Industry Board, in order to achieve economies of scale and better compete in the market for increasingly large merchant vessels like VLCCs. The creation of these groupings included Scott Lithgow on the Lower Clyde, Swan Hunter on Tyneside and Robb Caledon on the east coast of Scotland. The government had a 48.4% minority holding in the consortium and provided a £5.5m interest-free government loan over the first three years. UCS had a combined order book at the time worth £87m.
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