The Impeding Oil Boom

A huge decade of expansion, business development and hugely improved facilities would follow once again as the Malakoff would go from strength-to-strength.

With the aforementioned shift from wooden boats to steel hulls and bigger boats, it was set to become a huge few years in shaping the company going forward. The Malakoff would be purchased by Lithgow Holdings Ltd of Glasgow shortly before the Scalloway yard, owned by William Moore & Sons, would be purchased by John Wood Group of Aberdeen. The two would go on to form a holding company, combining the two yards which would be ran and managed by local personnel. 

With this, a new Scalloway slipway became to fruition too which would go on to refit and repair three of Shetland's lifeboats. 

However, while there was huge progress on the boatbuilding front, it would be the Shetland oil boom of the 70's that would make up a bulk of the companies' big business. In the early days of Sullom Voe Oil Terminal, there would be truckloads of steel supplied by the Malakoff on a weekly basis. Alongside this, mechanical and electrical labour would be supplied to the Shetland Isles Council as they made headway at Sellaness.