Cornwall's marine industry is growing fast

Directly or indirectly it employs 14,000 people and 42% of Cornish marine businesses are located around Falmouth, accounting for 181 business and almost 3,000 jobs That was the message heard by more than 130 business leaders from across Cornwall who attended The Cornish Account, the annual business seminar hosted by Truro-based business advisers Winter Rule.

The Cornish Account has become one of the key annual business seminars in the county and each year throws a spotlight on a particular aspect of the Cornish economy.

This year the marine sector was the topic of debate and delegates heard presentations from Winter Rule partners Scott Bentley and Andrew Allen, and from Adam Corney, Executive Director of Marine South West, which was set up in 2000 to increase the competitiveness of marine sector companies across the region.

Using case studies featuring AP Valves Group of Helston, Rustler Yachts of Penryn and Microcomms Marine of Portreath, Scott presented both the successes and challenges that the Cornish marine sector faces.

Scott explained: "We act for a wide range of marine-related businesses so we recognise how vital the sector is to Cornwall's continued prosperity. Of the businesses that we focused on in our presentation some consistent themes emerged.

"There is a great need for management and marketing skills in the sector. Many businesses have originally developed from a passion for the marine sector whether this is sailing, diving or lifestyle products. Whilst the businesses are very driven to create dynamic products and services, they often need some external support in the form of general business skills to take the product to market.

"We often find that as a firm we are involved in assisting such businesses to secure external investment or establishing ownership structures to attract and retain key staff and skills."

Scott said research and development was another key challenge: "Many businesses that we advise in the sector face the continued need to invest in new or existing products.

"This increases the importance of budgeting and cash control but also creates a need for specialist taxation advice. Over the last few years we have seen a significant rise in the level of work we undertake in advising businesses how to claim the valuable Research and Development tax credits that are available to many businesses in the marine sector.

"The recent Budget announcement of an extension to this tax relief perhaps represented one of the relatively few good news messages for the various business sectors in Cornwall."

Adam Corney explained that the mission for Marine South West was that "by 2010 the marine industry in the South West will be regarded as the most competitive, innovative and coherent region in Europe."

Funded primarily by the South West of England Regional Development Agency, Marine South West works in partnership with four marine networks across the region including the Falmouth-based Cornwall Marine Network on delivering a range of industry-led initiatives.

Adam said: "In the South West as a whole the marine sector is worth around £1 billion, encompasses 2,700 businesses and employs 32,000 individuals. In Cornwall it supports some 14,000 jobs and one in every seven jobs in the UK marine sector is now in Cornwall, with the county accounting for 8% of the UK's marine sector turnover.

"That's a fantastic achievement and I'm confident that Cornwall will become one of the most competitive marine regions in Europe."

levels in the county, and that's what's happening."

CASE STUDY Rustler Yachts, Penryn Rustler Yachts in Penryn was cited by the seminar as an example of a business with traditional crafts that is based in Cornwall and developed a worldwide following.

As manufacturers of world-class yachts Rustler is famous for its three core brands Bowman, Starlight and Rustler. The vessels are bespoke high quality blue water sailing yachts.

Nick Offord, one of the owner managers, explained: "Our vessels are highly bespoke hand crafted projects. With each vessel having a price tag starting at around £140,000 each new build is a major project for our business with all the risks that this entails.

"By the nature of these projects it has historically been a challenge to maintain the workloads for our team and sustain year round employment to retain our skill base. This is part of the reason for the more recent development of a smaller vessel, the Rustler 24, with a wider market.

"As a family owned businesses we have needed to ensure that we have all the skills in house to take the business forward. We recently welcomed our first non family director and shareholder to the board who brings valuable skills to the company particularly in the area of sales and marketing "We have been working with Winter Rule specifically on these and general succession planning issues which the business needed to address to ensure the continued development and success of the company.

"For us Cornwall is a natural choice as a location for our business. Apart from obviously being a very nice place to build yachts the Falmouth waters provide a base for excellent testing facilities and many of our key suppliers are in close proximity, as is the skills pool that is crucial to our production process."

AP Valves Group, Helston The A P Valves Group, originally established and still run by the Parker family, designs and manufactures diving equipment, 40% of which is exported around the world.

One of the company's landmark products is its diving rebreather system that give divers a longer dive by recycling and refreshing exhaled air.

These products are regarded as the Formula 1' of the diving world and their characteristics mean they are particularly suited to specialists working in silent diving such as underwater filming, environmental studies and by naval forces around the world.

Managing Director Martin Parker explained: "We are an international business but very much committed to Cornwall. As a high technology, product-driven business we need to continue to invest in developing our existing and new products and that also means maintaining a high commitment to investing in staff and their skills.

"Training and product safety is absolutely key to our business and this is an area that also requires significant investment."

Microcomms Marine, Portreath Many businesses in Cornwall will already be familiar with the Microcomms core brand that delivers computer and network cabling manufacture, network design and installation.

Microcomms Marine is a business that grew from the original brand and has developed the "Watchmonitor" system which provides a yacht monitoring system.

The system is an all in one electronic device that provides onboard remote measurement of a vessel's main functions and features including anti theft devices, vessel location systems, battery, gas and bilge monitors and can report any problems to owner's mobile phone.

Effectively it allows boat owners to remotely monitor the condition and location of their boat.

Owner Simon Murley explained: "Watchmonitor is very much a product that has been developed from a genuine interest in yachting and the marine sector in general, prompted by our location in Cornwall.

"As a business we saw the importance of separating this particular venture from our historic core activity. We have worked with Winter Rule to achieve this as well as securing Research & Development tax relief, which has been important to us as an effective way of funding some of the development cost.

"One of the most significant issues for us has also been getting the product to market. With a unit price starting at £350 we need to sell a high volume of units and we soon realised to do this we needed major financial investment support. Finance Cornwall has assisted us in this area providing a funding package to allow this marketing investment to take place."

CORNWALL MARINE SECTOR FACTFILE  Directly or indirectly employs 14,000 people  42% of Cornish marine businesses are located around Falmouth, accounting for 181 business and almost 3,000 jobs  Accounts for one in seven marine jobs in the UK  Accounts for 8% of UK's marine industry turnover  64% of marine businesses employ less than 10 people  45% of marine sector employees are aged over 45  At 433 miles Cornwall's coastline is the longest of any UK county  Cornwall has 8,000 marina berths - all occupied  Cornwall hosts up to 45,000 visiting yacht nights per year  Business and management are the most needed' skills in the sector according to a University of Plymouth survey