Sir Ben Ainslie's Land Rover BAR America's Cup team has released an economic impact report for the first year of it's operation in the British city of Portsmouth. The report reads:
Ben Ainslie's decision to base the team in the UK, supported by the first round of the 2015 Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series (ACWS) hosted in Portsmouth, has resulted in:
- £47m economic impact (in Gross Value Added (GVA) terms) to the UK;
- £59m media value (in advertising value equivalency (AVE) terms); and
- 730 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs created across Great Britain.
Ben Ainslie, Team Principal and Skipper, Martin Whitmarsh, CEO and Sir Keith Mills, Director of Land Rover BAR and Chairman of the Louis Vuitton America's Cup World Series, Portsmouth presented the detailed figures.
The economic impact report by KPMG, released today, included:
- The team and event combined generated £47m of UK economic impact (Team: £38m; Event: £9m) and £59m of media value (Team: £43m; Event: £22m, less £6m crossover).
- Of the £38m of economic impact generated in the UK by the team, £19.2m is associated with operations and supply chain spend, and the development of the team HQ added another £18.5m.
- The total of 730 FTE jobs supported by the team and event are the result of:
- – 555 FTE jobs created via the team's activities, made up of 87 direct jobs with the team, 320 jobs in the supply chain supported by the team's expenditure, and another 148 induced jobs, resulting from employees spending a proportion of their additional income in the UK economy.
- – 175 FTE jobs created as a result of the ACWS Portsmouth event, due to increased economic activity in its supply chain, and due to induced spending in the wider economy.
- Economic impact from the team's first America's Cup campaign projected to be £96 million.
- The team contributed to the development of skills in the marine sector through initiatives including working with 70 apprentices from Southampton City College in the building of the team's two Docking RIBs, and providing 7 apprenticeships, 2 internships and 9 work placements in all areas of the team: Boatbuilding, Design, Sustainability, IT, Finance and Marketing.
- Case studies demonstrated how the team are encouraging their sustainability objectives to be adopted in their supply chain; as of July 2015, 0% of Green Marine's waste has gone to landfill.
