The UK seaside town home to Britain’s largest port is experiencing a business boom. Felixstowe is a town on the Suffolk coast and has a population of over 24,000 people. It is the largest container port in the UK.
It is among the country’s fastest-growing areas for microbusinesses, those with fewer than 10 employees, making it a hotspot for entrepreneurs.
GoDaddy’s Venture Forward report mapped more than 600,000 businesses across Britain to find each area’s ‘microbusiness density’ against every 100 residents.
The area dubbed Suffolk Coastal saw 54 percent growth in its concentration of microbusinesses over the past year, over ten times the national average of 5 percent.
Catherine Hickman is one of these coastal entrepreneurs and founded her organic skincare business, Fanatical Botanical, last year in Felixstowe.
“Felixstowe has a strong community spirit; people believe in shopping local and supporting small businesses,” she told the Mail.
“The craft fairs and markets in Felixstowe helped get my business off the ground and in December I launched my website to support the next phase.
“My business is continuing to grow and I’ve just secured three local stockists to distribute my range of natural skincare products.”
The number of small businesses reached a record high last year, according to the Office for National Statistics. A total of 859,007 companies were registered in 2023, an increase of just under 75,000 on the previous year.
Andrew Gradon, head of GoDaddy UK & Ireland, said: “The UK’s small business community is in good health and we’ve seen growth in microbusiness density in most parts of the country.
“Many iconic coastal towns have been at the heart of this boom. The trend is particularly pronounced in the south of England, as people have moved out of London post-Covid.”