20 companies join new venture

Twenty companies make up the initial membership of the Balearic Marine Cluster, the formation of which has been announced at the Palma International Boat Show. The aim of the new cluster is to position the Balearic Islands as worldwide industrial and business leaders.

The professionals involved in this new grouping presented the initiative at the Palma International Boat Show, in the company of Iago Negueruela, minister for Employment, Commerce and Industry and the director general of Industrial Policy, Manel Porras.

The Balearic Marine Cluster is an organisation open to companies which carry out industrial activities related to nautical tourism and to entities which take part in training, investigation and development within the sector.

The cluster’s main objectives include:

• to increase international visibility for the Balearics as a centre for nautical activities;
• to promote growth and reinforce the sector’s competitive position;
• to increase business figures, the profitability and quality occupation of its corporate make-up; and
• to coordinate the sector’s value chain in order to increase its efficiency and productivity in the Balearics.

The creation of the Balearic Marine Cluster is classified as part of the promotion of industrial clusters within the 2018-2025 Industrial Plan presented by the General Directorate of Industrial Policy at the Ministry of Employment, Commerce and Industry.

The aim is to relaunch a cluster strategy as a tool with which to increase the competition, collaboration and informal links between the companies and institutions within a specific geographical area, in an effort to make the most of the territory’s competitive advantages. This project has been put together as part of the European Regional Development Fund within the framework of the Balearic Islands’ FEDER Operational Programme for 2014-2020.

The nautical sector is one of the productive sectors identified within the Industrial Plan as being imperative, given its high specialisation, added value, potential for growth and elevated industrial component.

According to the conclusions derived from the strategic development project and the launch of the nautical cluster in 2018, the recreational nautical sector comprises 272 companies in the Balearic Islands, creates billings of €562m, presents an accumulated growth of 10.5% over the last four years and provides jobs for 2,676 people.

An analysis of the sector shows that 51% of the businesses belong to the fields of maintenance and repair (refit & repair), both for large and for medium and small boats. The rest of the value chain is made up of activities linked to nautical tourism: marinas, charters, management and brokerage service agencies, commerce, etc.