LEADING luxury boat builder Sunseeker International welcomed HRH The Earl of Wessex to their base in Poole.

His Royal Highness was in Poole as part of his commitments to promote The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (DofE), the world’s leading youth achievement programme.

As a trustee for the DofE and almost 30 years since achieving his own Gold Award; Prince Edward is looking to enable a new generation of young people to start their DofE journey in the UK and abroad.

Sunseeker, which has a successful apprenticeship programme that was recently awarded ‘Best Apprenticeship and Training Scheme’ at the International Boat Builder Awards, formally invited HRH The Earl of Wessex for a tour of the factory to see its award-winning boats being manufactured and to meet with its staff, including some of its 116 apprentices.

Phil Popham, CEO of Sunseeker International, said: “We were delighted to welcome HRH The Earl of Wessex to Sunseeker and to Poole, this was such a big occasion for the business and we were extremely proud he accepted our invitation.

“While he was here, we wanted to demonstrate the hard work we do as a business to promote economic growth through the world-class design, engineering and manufacture of more than 150 boats per year; we are proud to be a British manufacturing and exports success story.”