Trimline land giant order from P&O Cruises

9:59am Thursday 6th December 2007

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SHIP outfitters Trimline have landed their biggest ever soft furnishing manufacturing contract after P&O Cruises awarded the Southampton firm a deal to make more than 18,000 items for its latest superliner Ventura.

The 115,000 tonnes Ventura (right), will make its debut in Southampton in April 2008 and is aimed to be "the most family friendly superliner sailing from the UK".

Currently in the final stages of construction in Italy, Ventura is being designed for British passengers and Trimline will supply the soft furnishings for more than 1,500 passenger cabins and over 600 crew cabins.

Among the items being supplied are window curtains, bed valances, bed throws and scatter cushions. In addition, a Trimline team of about ten specialists will visit the ship to fit curtain tracks in all the passenger cabins.

Once complete, the furnishings will be shipped out to Italy in a fleet of containers ready for the Trimline crew to complete the finishing touches before the ship sails to Southampton for her maiden cruise.

Although better known for refurbishing and refitting passenger and other vessels, Trimline has gained a strong reputation for supplying soft furnishings with previous projects including Cunard's vast Queen Mary 2, where more than 12,000 items were made for passenger cabins.

The firm has also been involved in the fit out of the newest Cunarder, Queen Victoria, which is to be named in Southampton on Monday. Nearly 20 Trimline personnel accompanied the ship when she set sail from Venice to the UK, carrying out tasks including fitting more than 500 television brackets in crew cabins and converting bunk beds to doubles, plus other work to customise her for the UK market.

Sales and marketing director Mike Oliver said: "With ex-UK cruising booming, the fleet of new ships is continually increasing and we have established ourselves as a supplier of bulk soft furnishing orders. QM2 was a major exercise but Ventura will even surpass that."

Trimline has until February to manufacture the furnishings as part of the massive effort to ensure that the latest addition to the P&O Cruises fleet is ready for her maiden season.

As well as cruise ships and luxury superyachts, Trimline has carried out a variety of work on less glamorous vessels including prison ship HMP Weare and Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels.