Port of Sunderland bosses make waves with French town

Bosses from the Port of Sunderland have forged links with industry in Sunderland’s twin town, the French port of Saint-Nazaire.

The recent visit explored commercial opportunities with the the fourth largest seaport authority on France’s Atlantic seaboard.

Matthew Hunt, port director of Port of Sunderland believed the trip was a useful fact-finding opportunity.

He said: “We were presented with the opportunity to visit the French port after Monsieur Joel Batteux, mayor of Saint-Nazaire came to Port of Sunderland in November 2013 and was impressed, not only by the level of its recent development but its future development potential.

“Port of Sunderland has a clear vision for growth and the prospect of benchmarking and learning from an extremely successful port was a fundamental and unmissable opportunity.

“The visit was an extremely beneficial insight into the ways in which other European port’s operate and really helped us to review and refine our renewable energy offering and understand one another’s vision for the future.

“Our twinned partnership means we have a synergy in place that can only be strengthened through the sharing of best practice. We have a fantastic port that is really starting to carve out a strong reputation and we really do believe that this relationship could hold the key to a stronger city economy.”

Sunderland and Saint-Nazaire were twinned in 1953 during a period when the British Home Office was promoting links between towns in Britain and elsewhere in Europe to foster peace and harmony following the end of the Second World War.

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