Meet the Finalists: Coastal Powerhouse Award
Over the coming days, Maritime UK will be profiling each of the finalists in this year’s Maritime UK Awards. Winners will be announced on 12 November in an event live streamed from Plymouth. Registration is open here.
In recognition of the importance of the maritime activity across the UK, Thales is proud to sponsor the Coastal Powerhouse Award at the second annual Maritime UK Awards this November.
The Maritime UK Awards are open to businesses, charities and organisations of any size, and the Coastal Powerhouse Award will be awarded to those that have proven to be a catalyst or driver for growth within a coastal community. An ability to deliver the values, ambitions and vision to transform a community into a Coastal Powerhouse is crucial.
Chris Wardman, Maritime Autonomy Business Lead at Thales said:
“As part of one of the major four current established Maritime UK clusters, Thales understand that the individual strength of these clusters will contribute to the wider success of the Coastal Powerhouse. This award recognises the individual contribution and celebrates the potential future success in support of Maritime 2050 and the UK’s export aspirations.”
Highly respected experts from a variety of businesses and government departments were involved in the judging panel for this year’s Maritime UK Awards, which celebrate the achievements of the UK’s maritime sector, which adds £46.1bn to the UK economy every year, and supports 1.1 million jobs.
Three finalists who can all demonstrate their contribution to regional growth in costal communities across the UK are the PD Ports, the Port of Cromarty Firth and Solent LEP. The winner will be announced at a virtual event broadcast live from Plymouth on Thursday 12 November.
PD Ports is one of the UK’s largest port groups, operating out of 13 key ports and logistics centres across the UK and directly employing over 1,270 people. The port group has attracted £1bn of investment into the Tees Valley region in the last decade, creating over 2,500 jobs in the process. As the owners and operators of Teesport, the fifth largest port in the UK, PD Ports play a pivotal role in managing the 483 million tonnes of cargo passing through UK waters each year. By creating new jobs and supporting local people in times of hardship post COVID-19, PD Ports is continuing to demonstrate itsongoing commitment to investing in the region and its people.
The Port ofCromarty Firth is focused on sustainably developing, improving and safeguarding the Cromarty Firth to benefit all its stakeholder groups: staff, customers, businesses and local communities. The port is a catalyst for growth and community benefits and has doubled turnover, profit and jobs in seven years. The PoCE’s community sponsorship programme awarded £36,000 to local causes in 2019 and played an important role in providing Covid-19 support in recent months. Remaining open during the initial lockdown enabled the port to keep the supply chains open and allowed local businesses to stay open.
Solent LEP is a partnership between industry, academia and the nine Solent local authorities, and has invested heavily in maritime projects that benefit the Solent region. Solent LEP focuses on local strength, developing investment opportunities, and work with local partners to drive regional growth, but also to offer support in situations such as the initial outbreak of Covid-19. The maritime sector is the main economic sector in the Solent and is the focus of much of its work.
Harry Theochari, Chair of Maritime UK, said:
“We’re delighted to announce the finalists for the Maritime UK Awards 2020. Across all fourteen categories we can see some genuinely world-beating products, services, and operators. The quality of entries this year is testament to the strength and commitment of our maritime sector to be world-class despite the most challenging of circumstances.”
Ben Murray, Director of Maritime UK, said:
“We were determined that these awards would go ahead, and in an ideal world would have been one of the first occasions at which colleagues from across the sector could come back together following COVID-19. With that not being possible due to new restrictions, we think it’s really important to celebrate the remarkable work that has been going on – in responding to COVID-19, and in spite of it – which sends a message of resilience and ambition.”
The 2020 Maritime UK Awards are hosted by Maritime UK South West and delivered by Plymouth City Council. Diamond Sponsors are the MLA College and the University of Plymouth.
Tickets to the live-streamed event are free and open to everyone. To register visit the official website.