Business direction delivered at Marine East

When Steve Tubby joined in mid-September he was set the challenge of establishing an industry led support group for the both the leisure and commercial sectors of an industry that contributes significantly to the region’s economy yet receives very little support and recognition from local authorities.

The strategic direction of Marine East is formed entirely from the needs of businesses. Steve Tubby said, ‘As we are a not for profit organisation that exists purely to support the industry, we work on the areas that businesses want us to. Currently our key areas are skills, training, education and lifelong learning, development of clusters and supply chains, representation at local, regional and national level, accessing and sharing best practise, and marketing. We have a plan for each of these areas and significant progress has been made in the past few months in meeting targets and objectives.’

Membership numbers are steadily growing as businesses see that Marine East is actually engaging and delivering benefits for members. It has recently assisted one member access support funding to participate in a trade delegation visit to Dubai and another to secure 50% match funding to help with staff training.

Marine East is currently planning a regional roadshow that will see it host five events across the region. This will not just be a membership recruitment drive but with support from UK Trade and Investments, Business Link East and SEMTA, businesses will be able to find out how these different government agencies are able to help businesses, especially in what are challenging economic times.

For further information visit www.marine-east.org