Staff at Oyster Yachts have returned from the world’s biggest boat show in Dusseldorf buoyed by several strong sales leads and two signed contracts.

The company, which has production facilities at Hoveton, Norfolk, and Southampton and a registered office in Ipswich, took two boats to Germany, an Oyster 575, costing between £1.4million and £1.6m, and its range-topping Oyster 825 yacht, starting at £4.5m.

The 825, the third to be built by the company, was the largest yacht on display at the show.

Managing-director David Tydeman said: “The contracts we signed were for two of the smaller yachts in our range, the 475 and 575, but we came away with a good inquiries list for other boats as well.

“We were certainly glad we were there although the mood around the show was mixed; some people did not get the footfall they expected.”

He said that, as well as displaying the boats, Oyster had demonstrated a range of new technology, including a system linked to GPS which automatically changed the intensity of light from day to night-time levels where ever you were sailing in the world.

The company currently had a very healthy order book of 32 boats, including four reaching the commissioning stage, 14 in build and 14 waiting to start, he added.

The company’s workforce at the former Landamores yard on Hoveton’s Tilia Business Park has risen from 70 when Oyster took it over three years ago to about 180 and is expected to grow by a further 20% in the next two years.

Following completion of a £500,000 extension last year, increasing the number of build bays from seven to nine, a further expansion to 14 build bays was already planned.