Faststream Opens New Global Headquarters

Faststream was established in Southampton in 1999, having gone on to launch further international offices in North America and Asia, with its Southampton office remaining as its global headquarters and housing more than 70 of its 100 worldwide staff.

Charman commented, “We are hugely proud of our achievements over the past 18 years and very excited about our new global headquarters. Our new offices provide us with the very best in working environments for our staff and allow us to continue to grow the business. Our location in Southampton’s Town Quay area is steeped in maritime history with views over the cities new cruise terminal and container port.”

The new HQ unveiling event was attended by many of Faststream’s clients alongside senior members of Faststream’s team. Platten was guest speaker at the event and gave a speech looking at the current climate of the Maritime industry in the U.K. and insight into some of the U.K. Chambers current initiatives. 

Platten spoke about his focus on training a new generation of seafarers, saying, “Support for maritime training in the U.K. was introduced in the late 1990s at a time where 50 percent of the cost of training a seafarer was provided by the government. Now it is just 36 percent. We are asking the government to double SMarT funding to £30 million a year, as part of a proposal we call SMarT Plus. This will help us train more seafarers and our proposal will see ship owning companies guarantee the cadets they are training their first job on a minimum of a one year contract.”

Platten added that “many major U.K. maritime employers back the scheme, as do trade unions and MPs from across all parties, as well as major newspapers.”