Plymouth, UK, based boating training company SeaRegs, has been acquired by Ryan Tozer, managing director of iPowerboat.
SeaRegs was founded in 2010 by Simon and Vicky Jinks, with the company initially running Maritime and Coastguard Agency courses.
The company has grown and now trains 2,800 people a year in STCW, MCA SQA and RYA courses and marine apprenticeships using seven boats.
“We have always tried to grow from within our workforce, and continuous training and training pathways for new instructors has been key to up-skilling and making our own talent pool,” explained Simon.
Apprenticeship and training standards
“We are asked to consult at MCA and nominated bodies for codes/regulation and we are part of consultative groups working with Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to help develop and review apprenticeship and training standards nationally.”
iPowerboat is a marine training centre based in Scotland which provides powerboat, workboat, navigation, sea survival and short courses for both the commercial and leisure sectors.
IPowerboat was founded by Ryan in 2011.
“Whilst setting up iPowerboat, SeaRegs was a company I aspired to,” he said.
“I respected Simon and Vicky massively. Our goal was to look at working towards a SeaRegs-type acquisition in the future then, a couple of months later, we found out by chance that it was for sale.”
Positive relationship
He added: “SeaRegs is a natural choice for us. There are lots of training centres offering maritime courses all over the UK, but only a few that specifically focus on the commercial workboat sector.
“As SeaRegs was located at the other end of the country to iPowerboat it meant it was more of a friend than a competitor, so our relationship has always been positive.”
And Ryan explained that he intends to maintain both the Scottish and Plymouth facilities with potential crossover and amalgamation of courses. The companies will be run under the newly-launched Tozer Holdings Limited banner.
Simon added: “Ryan knows the sector well. He has done quite a bit of training with us along the way and he is a very knowledgeable guy who has a similar ethos.”
The Jinks will continue to be involved in the marine industry through offering regulatory safety management and auditing advice and guidance.
