Pictured left to right – Charlotte Bulloch, account manager; Alisdair Pettigrew, co-founder and managing director; Karen Bartlett, account director; Nick Blythe, co-founder and executive director; Amie Pascoe, director

Blue, a consultancy specialising in B2B PR, digital marketing, brand and communications for the commercial maritime and renewable energy sectors, has acquired Saltwater Stone, a British PR agency focused on the marine leisure, white boat and superyacht sectors.

Saltwater Stone, which was founded over 30 years ago, will be renamed Saltwater.

Blue is headquartered in Oxford, UK, and also has offices in Poole, London and Shanghai. The firm says the acquisition extends its reach within the global marine leisure and superyacht market, recently valued at over $43 billion globally.

Saltwater’s team will continue to operate from its Poole office under the Saltwater name, with additional services being provided through Blue. Saltwater’s current clients include Peters and May, a yacht transportation and logistics provider, Kongsberg Maritime, a technology company, and ACR, a provider of safety technology.

BLUE and the SaltWater team

“Saltwater was founded by Georgina and Clive Bartlett in the early 1990s and built a great reputation within the marine leisure, white boat and superyacht market,” says Alisdair Pettigrew, managing director of Blue. “Clive retired from the business in 2019 and as Georgina now moves on, we recognise we have both a great responsibility and opportunity to expand into another growing maritime sector. We’re really excited to work with the Saltwater team to help supercharge and invest in its growth with our additional services and resources.”

The acquisition is part of Blue’s ongoing strategy to drive growth through both organic expansion and targeted acquisitions in related B2B markets.

“It’s an approach that we know works,” added Pettigrew. “We live and breathe our clients’ markets, and we know and understand the many challenges that they’re experiencing right now. They’re facing huge change and transformation, and with our in-depth specialist knowledge we can help them to develop and implement strategies that have real impact and genuinely cut to the heart of what they need in order to thrive.”

Blue has over 15 years of experience working with commercial maritime and renewable energy clients. It employs a team of more than 35 people and serves over 80 clients globally.

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