Growth sees marine energy specialists relocate to Swansea High Street

A successful local business with ambitions to become a world leader in the supply of renewable marine energy devices has relocated to the redeveloped Warehouse building at High Street’s Urban Village as part of its growth strategy.

Marine Power Systems (MPS) is revolutionising how energy can be harvested from the world’s oceans by integrating floating wind and wave technology. They will occupy the building’s first floor, joining existing Warehouse tenants CDSM Interactive Solutions, who occupy the second floor and speciality coffee house and eatery Basekamp which operates out of the ground floor.

The Warehouse is a sympathetic redevelopment of the old Down and Sons furniture building, one of the few examples of Victorian architecture in the area to have survived the Swansea wartime blitz. It is managed by Coastal Housing, forming part of its Urban Village development.

“Having expanded considerably and outgrown our offices at Ethos in SA1, we needed to find suitable and new premises in Swansea”, says Dr Gareth Stockman, CEO of MPS.  “Whilst the team have risen to the challenge of remote working admirably, it is important that they have the ability to meet at times face to face and work together in an environment that supports collaboration and communication between colleagues.

“Furthermore, the central Swansea location provides direct access to local transport and routes to London, as well as access to our nearby workshop.

“The team at Coastal have been very helpful and flexible in accommodating our needs and we are really looking forward to this important move which will support the business as it continues to grow.”

Rokib Uddin, Coastal’s Commercial Surveyor said: “We are pleased to welcome MPS to the Warehouse which is now fully occupied. They’re an excellent addition to our community of commercial tenants in and around the Urban Village on High Street. This shows there is demand for good quality office space in the city, notwithstanding the global pandemic. The commercial scene in Swansea is changing and Coastal is here to help and support businesses with their requirements, working with specialist commercial agents BP2.”

MPS have been developing, testing and improving their technology over the past 13 years and completed a multi-million-pound project to design, manufacture and sea test a medium scale prototype at Falmouth, United Kingdom.

Having proved the advantages of the technology and the ability to generate grid compatible electricity they are now working at full scale ahead of commercialisation. Marine Power Systems have been awarded £12.8m of support by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government.

They completed a round of crowdfunding and private investment in the summer of 2020, exceeding the original target, to support and match that non-dilutive government grant funding. The business has just raised a further £1.7 million, including £250,000 of match funding from the Development Bank of Wales’ Wales Angel Co-investment Fund, and they have just opened pre-registration for early access to a crowdfunding campaign with equity investment experts Crowdcube.

That investment success is based on significant third-party due diligence and is testament to the belief that Marine Power Systems’ technology will be a market leader in the supply of marine energy extraction hardware.

To pre-register for early access to the crowdfunding campaign visit the Marine Power Systems’ website