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Marine
The marine sector in the Portsmouth city region employs over 13,000 people within 800 organisation, with significant clusters in defence, leisure, commercial marine and fisheries. Marine defence is the dominant cluster, largely due to Portsmouth being the long-established home of the Royal Navy. The Naval Base and surrounding defence establishments supports approximately 35,000 jobs and generates £680 million annually for the local economy.
The city region is proliferated with defence companies from the large multi nationals to SMEs. The large multinationals consist of BAE Systems, QinetiQ, EADS Astrium, Northrup Grumman and Lockheed Martin. The SMEs provide specialist services such as Portsmouth Aviation who supply CBRN equipment to surface vessels and Welland Defence supplying sophisticated filtration systems for HM submarines.
The city region continues to attract key marine companies. Raymarine, global leaders in the supply of electronic products to the leisure marine market, has moved its corporate Headquarters here, the nautical heart of the country, reaffirming the city’s reputation as a centre for innovation and success. BVT Surface Fleet brings together the great names of BAE Systems and VT Group with their previous joint venture, Fleet Support Limited (FSL), in a huge undertaking to establish the UK's leading provider of surface warships and through-life support. BVT will help build two new super carriers due to be completed by 2014, generating 2000 new jobs.
The city region is also widely recognised for its cluster in marine leisure. Marinas are of plenty, with Port Solent being the 3rd largest in the UK. One of the south coast’s busiest sailing centres, the waters of the Solent make it the location of choice for many international leisure marine businesses, including Crewsaver and North Sails.
The University of Portsmouth, with its world-class research facilities, provides skilled labour that is refreshed annually. Specialist areas include marine science, bio-technology and electronic engineering. Its Advanced Polymer and Composites (APC) research group is currently researching nanotechnology, which will lead to a scientific breakthrough against the progressive deterioration associated with marine vessels.
For more information on the Marine Sector in the Portsmouth city region please see the attached Marine Cluster Validation Report produced by The Centre for Local & Regional Economic Analysis at the University of Portsmouth.
