Willemsen to Fit Out 10 River Cruise Ships Annually From 2028
After expanding its Huissen facility to 25,000 square meters in 2025, Willemsen transferred office and hotel projects to partners and dedicated its capacity to river ship interiors.
Dutch interior contractor Willemsen Interieurbouw plans to fit out nine river cruise ships annually in 2026 and 2027, increasing to 10 a year from 2028. The company has approximately 35 river newbuilds on its books, CEO and owner Toine Willemsen told Cruise Industry News in an interview for its 2027 European River Market Report.
Ten of those projects are for Celebrity River Cruises. Another 10 Celebrity vessels booked at TeamCo Shipyard are expected to be added to Willemsen’s workload, but are not yet included in the interior contractor’s current order book.
Production capacity shifts entirely to river ships
Willemsen expanded its production facility in Huissen, the Netherlands, to 25,000 square meters in 2025. The family-owned business, founded in 1938, has worked on 125 new river cruise vessels during its history.
The company has now dedicated all its capacity to river ship interiors, transferring commercial projects such as offices and hotels to partner companies. That changes its previous business mix, under which shipping accounted for approximately 80 percent of activity and private and commercial interior work made up the remainder.
Partners also handle parts of the river vessel production process. Portisa in the Netherlands is manufacturing prefabricated bathrooms under Willemsen’s supervision, while a separate partner makes furniture for public spaces.
Celebrity designs require lighter construction
Work at Huissen currently includes interiors for Celebrity Compass and Celebrity Seeker. Willemsen has been collaborating with Celebrity’s design team for more than a year. River vessels are sensitive to draft.
“You need to try and actually build ‘light,’” Willemsen said. He described that requirement as a new area for the business and one that had received less attention in discussions with many previous clients.
The material choices include Metawell aluminum sandwich panels, lighter furniture sheet materials and lightweight structural arrangements. Metawell panels use a corrugated aluminum core bonded between two aluminum cover sheets, providing stiffness with less weight than solid aluminum construction.
Space is another constraint. Willemsen said fitting heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, electrical equipment and other installations into a river cruise hull while preserving room for passengers requires attention at the millimeter level.
“For the installations in the walls and especially above the ceilings, there is very little installation space,” he said.
Willemsen described the company’s role as production. For Celebrity, that means working from designs developed by the cruise line’s own large team.
“They can expect us to make what is designed by third parties constructive and of good quality,” he said.
Celebrity Seeker is scheduled to enter service in 2027 alongside Celebrity Compass. Seeker’s planned itineraries cover the Rhine and Danube.
