The Stenmar Group - which owns the Fort William Underwater Centre, a recreational and commercial diver training centre, and 9>90 diving magazine - has gone into receivership.
Fort William Underwater Centre was the last remaining commercial diving training centre in the UK, following the closure of Fort Bovisand, and was also home to a recreational dive school running PADI and technical diving courses.

The Stenmar Group - which owns the Underwater Centre as well as facilities in Aberdeen and Tasmania, Australia - appears to have overextended itself financially with the building of Ocean Frontier. Ocean Frontier is an aquarium showing sealife, diving and underwater technology; it was designed to be a tourist attraction, largely funded with government money, and created 30 jobs.

Twenty staff have been made redundant, with another fifty retained in an attempt by the receivers to allow the company to trade their way out of insolvency.

The other diving business acquired by Stenmar was 9>90 magazine, which suspended publication in 2003 after the staff were sacked. Managers at Stenmar told Divernet that the publication had been losing money and that the staff had been dismissed for 'mismanagement'. They also claimed to have appointed new staff, and that an issue of the magazine would be available in January 2004. The former magazine staff dispute the mismanagement claim, and are taking legal action against Stenmar for unfair dismissal and breach of contract.

Several 9>90 subscribers contacted Stenmar's managing director Don McGregor, and received assurances that their subscriptions would be honoured. However, this now appears to be unlikely given the current circumstances.

Stenmar creditors, including 9>90 subscribers, can register their interest with the administrators at the following address:
KPMG Glasgow Office
24 Blythswood Square
Glasgow G2 4QS
Tel: (0141) 226 5511
Fax: (0141) 204 1584


Related pages
Sue Daly takes a commercial diving course at Fort William
Ocean Frontier website


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