UKHO sells Seazone – by David Goodfellow
The UK Hydrographic Office has sold its holding stake in SeaZone Solutions to HR Wallingford for an undisclosed sum.
With the global market for marine Geographic Information Systems (GIS) entering a phase of rapid growth, the UKHO says that it is unable to provide the required support for SeaZone to expand its reach internationally, hence its disposal of a company with an estimated annual turnover of £1.5m.
A member of the UKHO group since 2005, SeaZone was originally established to provide digital mapping services in support of marine environment decision making within UK and overseas public and private sectors. Typical specialist areas cover marine spatial planning, environmental protection, socio-economic development, risk management and mitigation. Providing Crossrail with detailed mapping of the Thames Estuary and supplying charted vector data for development of offshore renewable energy ventures in Scotland are among recently completed tasks.
HR Wallingford, whose managing director Dr Jane Smallman welcomed the acquisition as an obvious benefit for all its existing customers, is one of Europe’s leading research centres for water management and engineering in river catchment, estuary, coastal and offshore areas. It has been a key participant in 40 EC sponsored projects, a number of which it has coordinated.
