THE boss of Sunseeker has said he is confident of returning the company to profit after the announcement that it lost £41m last year.

Chief executive Phil Popham said the outlook for the company was “massively more optimistic” than that figure might suggest.

Mr Popham – who took up his job in January this year – says the company has a “robust” business plan to make the company profitable while investing £20m in new products and more efficient production.

“We’ve got confidence we’ll take Sunseeker back to profitability in 2016 which will be very pleasing,” he said.

He said the company would grow its workforce and train more young people in boat building.

The £41m loss in 2014 followed a loss of £26m for a 17-month period to the end of December 2013.

Mr Popham said the company had faced the one-off costs of a restructuring which led to 300 job losses at the end of 2014. But he acknowledged a squeeze on revenue was also a key factor.

“The market was quite difficult in 2014 and we went into the year with a higher level of inventory than we would have liked, which put pressure on revenues,” he said.

The company had needed to “focus on our cost structure”, he said.

“We can’t change the results we had in 2014 but the prognosis moving forward is massively more positive and optimistic than that,” he added.

The business plan had been supported by the company’s majority shareholder – the Chinese-based Wanda Group – but also by the financial institutions which provide the company’s working capital and other investment he said.

Revenues were improving, with orders already 70 per cent up on last year.

“From a situation going into 2014 where we were carrying inventory, we will go out of 2015 with no unsold inventory,” he said.

“We’re pretty well sold out for this year and we have a healthy order book for 2016.”

There had been a “significant improvement” in areas where the company needed to grow, such as the Asia Pacific region and the US.

“We’ve just celebrated our 100th boat over 100ft and we’ve got two new launches in that sector in the spring, the 131 and the 116,” he said.

There were “improvements” to the company’s dealer network, with new dealers having opened recently in Russia and Long Island, New York.

The business plan had also enabled Sunseeker to reach long-term agreements with key suppliers, said Mr Popham.

“We announced at the Southampton Boat Show long term forward agreements with MTU our major engine supplier,” he said.

He added: “In addition to that, we’re making significant investment in our shipyards to improve efficiency of build, to reduce the time it takes to build our products.”

He said the business plan would allow for a “high level of investment” in products.

As well as the 100ft-plus yachts, the company is introducing more models among its smaller craft. Its Predator 57, launched at this year’s London Boat Show, is its fastest selling boat to date, while a new generation of its Manhattan range is being developed, with the first of four new models to be launched next year.

“It’s really important that we continue to invest in products. That’s’ what defines us, that’s what the market requires,” said Mr Popham.

“The business plan that we agreed is a long term, responsible business plan that takes us back to sustainable profit but allows for a significant investment in product and flexibility in Dorset – at the same time as making sure we’ve got the shipyards that can build boats efficiently.”