AFTER more than six decades in the shipbuilding business, the McLaren family has sold its controlling interest in North Vancouver's Allied Shipbuilders.
Brothers Malcolm McLaren, outgoing president of Allied, and Jim McLaren - the third generation of their family to run shipbuilding companies - announced Monday they have sold their two-thirds interest in Allied to Chuck Ko, a longtime employee and vice-president of operations.
Ko, 50, has been with Allied for 31 years and has been a key player on all of the company's major projects since then, said Malcolm McLaren.
A third brother, Doug McLaren, retains a one-third interest in the company.
The change marks the end of an era for the North Vancouver company, started after the Second World War by the brothers' father Arthur McLaren, who followed his own father W.D. McLaren into the West Coast shipbuilding business.
The company got its start on False Creek building steel tugs and barges for the forest industry. It grew from there, moving to North Vancouver in 1967. Building and repairing workboats has remained at the core of the company's business.
It's not "glitter" but it's work the province's economy relies on, said McLaren. "We like to feel we do something that's of use."
McLaren said selling the business to Ko - who trained under Arthur McLaren - was a natural decision when the two brothers felt it was time to step away from company.
McLaren said at first he wondered if he should try to sell to a big competitor. "As much as owning a shipyard is one of the finest things in the world, it's not the easiest business," he said. "Hardly anybody buys shipyards."
But when Ko - vice-president of the company - said he was interested in buying it, that made a lot of sense, said McLaren.
McLaren said he shares his late father's view that a shipbuilding company should be run by someone who has hands-on experience. Good technical knowledge of the work is needed to make business decisions, he said.
The company maintains a ratio of about one administration job for every 10 tradesmen, added McLaren.
Like Ko, many of Allied's workers - who currently number 140 - have been with the family business for several decades.
Both McLaren and Ko have seen plenty of highs and lows in the shipbuilding business in the past 30 years.
"The first half of the 1980s were glorious years," said McLaren. "We and most of North Vancouver were building special vessels for the Arctic Ocean (under federal government contracts.)"
"When I first started that's all we did," said Ko. "We used to build 200-foot icebreakers in seven months. That's what I cut my teeth on."
Another high point for the company was winning the contracts to both design and build the 360-foot B.C. ferry Skeena Queen in 1995. "We'd heard B.C. Ferries was looking for such a vessel. We chased it hard," said McLaren.
But there have also been plenty of rough seas to weather. "The tide comes in, the tide goes out," said McLaren. "My father told me years ago 'If you want steady work, go get a job somewhere else.'"
Both McLaren and Ko said the recent announcement that fellow North Vancouver shipbuilder Seaspan has been awarded an $8 billion contract for federal supply ships bodes well for the shipbuilding industry. "I like to think that the resources for building ships is finite, and we'll get some spillover," said Ko.
The sale of the company is bittersweet for McLaren, 58, whose declining health from Parkinson's Disease prompted his decision to hand over the reins.
Ko said any changes at Allied will be gradual. "It's going to be an evolution," he said.
"The way the McLarens have done it has stood the test of time."
