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With good days and bad days at sea, Solent rides the waves ...


Portsmouth Shipbuilding Group has abandoned its bid to take over the city’s shipyard. The workforce has been disbanded and the facility stripped, making the opportunity no longer viable. Alongside this sad development, however, a new group, the SMMSG, has emerged armed with close to £4 million to boost the region’s marine and maritime industries.


Group’s plans sunk


After 10 months of lobbying the Government and local council, Portsmouth Shipbuilding Group – the consortium of business owners formed after BAE Systems decided to relocate its shipbuilding division to Scotland – ended its bid to continue shipbuilding in Portsmouth.


On its Facebook page, it announced: “We wish all those involved in shipbuilding and supporters the very best for the future and hope that David Cameron remembers the pledge he made on January 20 to keep shipbuilding in the city.“


Donna Jones, leader of Portsmouth City Council, said it was disappointing, but she was aware of large overheads to run the site.


Stewart Dunn, Hampshire Chamber chief executive, added: “We view the group’s decision as a great shame. Everyone has done their best to support the city in what has been a challenging situation.“


Plotting a course for marine funding


Looking ahead, and on a more positive note, a new group, Solent LEP’s Solent Marine and Maritime Steering Group (SMMSG), has been


formed, tasked with boosting the region’s marine and maritime industries, and has announced two funds worth nearly £4m at its first meeting.


The first of these is a £1.5m fund to help marine employers invest in their current and future workforce.


Brian Johnson, UK business development director at BAE Systems Naval Ships, who has been named group chairman, said: “Technological advances and changes to the occupational structure are driving up skills requirements across the marine and maritime sectors.


“Although we have an excellent skills infrastructure and the building blocks for a world-class workforce, we need to address the fact that 20% of employers are already experiencing recruitment difficulties.“


This latest fund will arm businesses with the resources they need to plug the skills’ gap and ensure they are at the cutting edge of marine knowledge.


The second fund is the re-launch of the Isle of Wight Expansion Fund, which makes a total of £2.46m available to businesses either based on, or moving to, the Isle of Wight.


Previously earmarked exclusively for the marine, maritime, advanced manufacturing and composites engineering sectors, however, the fund has now been made more accessible to Island businesses and is available to companies operating in any sector of the Island economy.


Long established Isle of Wight business, Cheetah Marine, was the first beneficiary from the


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – SEPTEMBER 2014


original funding competition. The Island marine manufacturer was awarded £160,000 to establish a new LEAN manufacturing production line; allowing the company to develop and optimise export markets around the world from the Island through innovative new technology. The award resulted in an additional £640,000 private sector investment in the project and will lead to the safeguarding of 27 existing and creation of 18 new jobs at the firm.


Several companies making their way onto The Business Magazine’s new SME100 listing are similar examples of success and growth in the marine sector, and include: Southampton-based Besse & Mill (marine safety equipment), Sunschalk in Chichester (boatbuilding), Oceanair Marine (marine equipment, also in Chichester), Saacke Combustion Services at Havant (marine energy systems) and Fareham- based Walcon Marine (marina construction).


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