Although Bernard Meyer likes going on cruises, he likes being at home in Emsland even more. That is where he has his house, his family, his company. This businessman doesn’t care much for luxury. He doesn’t play golf or collect works of art, and he drives a mid-range car to work. Bernard Meyer is a marine engineer. Cruises are part of his business. For Bernard Meyer represents the sixth generation of his family running Meyer Werft, the large shipyard in Papenburg. He has turned the 200-year-old provincial family business into a global player. Meyer Werft builds cruise ships that are over twice as high as the Brandenburg Gate. These floating towns have room for up to 4,000 people – more than the populations of the popular North Sea islands of Wangerooge, Spiekeroog and Langeoog put together. The luxury liners are built in gigantic dry docks (also known as building docks), which are easily big enough for an Airbus A380 to fly through. And almost 300,000 visitors flock to visit the Emsland shipyard every year – a bigger audience than that of the world-famous Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. And that isn’t counting the tens of thousands of spectators who, three times a year, watch the spectacular transfer of a ship along the River Ems from Papenburg to the North Sea 40 kilometres away.
The last time this happened was in mid-March, when the Celebrity Eclipse was delivered. As always, this needed a lot of precision work on the Ems. The narrow river has to be dammed every time to enable the giant ships to be towed to sea. Bernard Meyer is always there in his jeans watching the scene, shaking people’s hands and welcoming them with the typical local greeting “Moin”. Bernard Meyer has deep roots in this region. The 62-year-old comes from Papenburg, a town with 35,000 inhabitants in the flat Emsland region. Here, in the northwestern corner of Germany, people are used to living with the tides. Ebb and flow. It seems to make them more relaxed. These folks have little time for vanities or big speeches. They are down-to-earth people who stick together.
Bernard Meyer steers his business like a captain, with far-sightedness and a sense of responsibility for its 2,500 employees – in both turbulent and calmer times. Of course, this also means changing course from time to time. After taking over the business from his father in 1982, it was his idea to focus on cruise ships. The Homeric was the first cruise ship to be launched from Meyer Werft in 1985. Thiry-five luxury liners will have left the shipyard by 2013. At present there are three ships under construction in the two covered dry docks. In Dock 1, the blocks of the Aida Sol are being welded together; two-thirds of the steel structure is finished. In Dock 2, Disney Dream is already afloat, enabling the machines to be tested with zero propeller thrust. And next door, the central section of the Celebrity Silhouette stands in the dry dock.
Building cruise ships is a masterly achievement of engineering and logistics. Some 15 to 18 million parts are built into every ship. Up to 2,000 partner companies are involved. At peak times, 6,500 people work on the site. Although Meyer Werft is the general contractor, its own share of each project is only about 25%. For, in contrast to the automotive or aircraft industries, virtually every ship is unique or one of a very small series of two to six vessels, which differ mainly in the way they are fitted out. The shipyard cannot do all this alone, so it’s a matter for highly specialized suppliers. For instance, because it builds luxury liners, Meyer Werft is also Germany’s largest theatre builder – albeit with unusual specifications. Unlike on land, a lift, for example, has to work even at an inclination of 20 degrees. Quite apart from the fact that the floating town also has to carry its own municipal utilities with it.
The biggest laser centre in Europe is at the core of production technology in Papenburg’s shipbuilding operation. In the digital factory, the steel parts are welded together according to CAD plans – with the help of a process specially developed by Meyer Werft: hybrid laser welding. It guarantees higher speed, less distortion (thanks to a lower level of heat input), improved strength and therefore lower costs compared to conventional steel processing. Using this technology, whole sections with profiles and side walls are made out of huge steel plates. Eight sections make up a block in which all the fixtures needed for cable tracks, plumbing and air-conditioning ducts are already installed. So the ship is basically assembled in the dry dock according to the Lego principle out of about 70 of these blocks, each of which weighs up to 800 tonnes. The design principle of cruise ships always follows similar patterns: the engines below, the public areas including bars and restaurants in the middle, above these the decks with the cabins, and right at the top the leisure area with swimming pools and solariums. On the Disney Dream this part is crowned by a 245-metre whitewater slide.
The cruise market is booming worldwide with annual growth rates of 5 to 10%. More and more people want to experience the Caribbean or the Mediterranean, the Baltic Sea or Alaska and enjoy the comforts and amenities of a cruise ship at the same time. Three major US shipping companies share the market: Carnival (Aida), Royal Caribbean (Celebrity) and Star Cruises. Disney only recently discovered this business but is pushing its way onto the market as a shipping company with all the power of a global player. At present cruise ships are still produced exclusively in Europe – at Meyer Werft, in Italy at the state company Ficantieri, in France and Finland. Meyer serves all the major cruise lines.
What is Meyer Werft’s recipe for success? First of all, the concept of the “family business”. This guarantees continuity and long-term thinking instead of the short-term pursuit of profit and frequent changes at the top. Another hallmark of the company’s success has been its early international orientation. Back in the 1950s Bernard Meyer’s father built up a close business relationship with the island nation of Indonesia. A total of 24 passenger ships from Papenburg are now in regular service there. Today, Meyer Werft exports exactly 100% of its cruise ships. And last, but not least, there is the company’s clear commitment to the “Made in Germany” label. Some 75% of every cruise ship comes from partner companies, and in this case 80% of these are German.
Bernard Meyer is sitting on the fourth floor of his company headquarters, a modest building compared to the shipyard docks. The executive floor is equipped like the bridge of a cruise ship: all in white, noble hardwood floors, large windows overlooking the industrial port. Blueprints and contracts are piled on Meyer’s desk. Bernard Meyer is a marine engineer through and through. “BM”, as he is called at the yard, can often be seen in the building docks. When he is not visiting customers in Miami or on a cruise, he sits at his desk working out strategies. For example, Meyer Werft has entered into a strategic alliance with the German lamp and lighting specialist Osram. Fuel consumption on the Celebrity Eclipse, which was delivered in the spring, was reduced by 30%, partly by using energy-saving LED lighting systems and other innovations. An in-house research department is constantly working on further improvements.
When the Disney Dream is undocked on 30 October and manoeuvred into the North Sea in mid-November, tens of thousands will again come to admire another masterpiece of the Papenburg shipbuilding industry. The Disney Dream will be the largest (370 metres long, 37 metres wide, 19 floors) and the most expensive (over 600 million euros) cruise ship ever built in Germany. Bernard Meyer will be there again, probably with his eldest son, Jan, who is already working at the company. He is in charge of the engineering departments.////
