The Marine Group

The Marine Group specialises in dredging and harbour management across the UK. With a fleet of dredgers, including their flagship vessel ‘The Doonhamer’, they support ports, marinas, and coastal infrastructure.

Following a full refit of The Doonhamer, which included replacing all moving parts and installing a new engine, the vessel was ready to return to work on contract jobs.

SALINE helped The Marine Group move from a standing start to a structured, scalable approach to business development. With a strong CRM in place and a rolling pipeline worth over £750,000 per quarter – expected to grow to £1 million – they’re now well-positioned for long-term growth.

The Challenge

Following a recapitalisation and vessel upgrade, The Marine Group was in a strong operational position but lacked a structured approach to business development. With the dredging market being both niche and highly competitive, they needed a way to rise above the noise and reach the right contacts efficiently.

• They had no working CRM or organised contact database.

• They needed help to build a pipeline of contract work.

• There was no system in place to capture and follow up with leads effectively.

The Marine Group engaged SALINE to:

Build and populate a CRM with relevant contacts using our existing contacts.

• Create and manage a targeted email outreach campaign.

• Generate leads from their ideal customer base.

• Provide tools and training to help their team run future campaigns independently.

What We Did

SALINE delivered a tailored solution with clear, practical outcomes:

• CRM Set-Up
  We built and populated a custom HubSpot CRM, targeting relevant decision-makers across marine infrastructure, harbour authorities, and coastal development sectors.

• Email Campaigns & Lead Generation
  We designed and delivered a 4-part email outreach campaign, tailored to the marine industry. Each email was customised for different audience segments and included clear, relevant calls to action. The campaign successfully generated leads from key sectors, which were handed over to The Marine Group’s in-house team for follow-up.

• Training & Support
  We delivered practical HubSpot training, enabling the team to manage their CRM and future outreach campaigns independently.

The Results

• The email campaigns generated high-quality leads.

• By the end of the quarter, we had secured a rolling pipeline worth £750,000, which continues to grow and is on track to reach the £1 million per quarter target.

• Fully operational CRM with in-house team trained and confident in using it.

• Plans underway to expand the fleet of dredgers and grow the team and crew.

• Stronger brand visibility and positioning within the market.

“We’re now commercially away and working – seems like we’re on a roll!”
– Chris Odling-Smee, Director, The Marine Group

Client Feedback

The Marine Group rated their experience with SALINE a 10 out of 10, highlighting that the team was always available for calls and support. They described the SALINE team as very helpful and praised the collaboration as a great experience. As a result, they’re already looking to re-engage SALINE for future business development projects and would highly recommend them to others.