National Maritime – Supporting SMEs in the UK maritime sector through funding, expertise and talent.

We are the business engagement group for the UK maritime sectors small and medium sized businesses (SMEs). We bring together members of the UK’s maritime sector from engineering, ports and logistics, services, heritage and social sciences, fisheries, shipping, offshore energy, superyacht and leisure.

As a powerhouse of UK maritime SMEs we focus on the development of supply chains that help drive trade, productivity and economic growth and we contribute to the sustainable growth of the UK’s estuarine and coastal communities. We help members realise their business visions and address targeted business challenges. We work to promote and develop excellence in all activities related to business, skills and education.

National Maritime is a not for profit organisation that believes small business matter because as we know, taken together, they are not small at all. Maritime SMEs represent part of the backbone of the British economy, which makes up more than 99% of firms, they contribute to the overwhelming majority of the business population, help to generate half of private-sector jobs and much of Britain’s wealth.

We believe that Government should be unapologetically on the side of small businesses and those who run them. We work to free small business owners so that they can get on with running their companies– investing in growth, hiring more people and delivering the goods and services their customers want.

We promote the UK as a world class location and work to ensure that the strategic approach to supporting the UK maritime sector is total, not just for the selected few or at the highest level by engaging and influencing government and fostering wider collaboration.

Our approach is reinforced by a focus to local activities, networks, conferences, meetings, events and partnership collaboration. This cross-sector collaboration is known as the #maritimeconnection