The roots of Witherby Publishing Group can be traced to 1740 in London. Around the time that ‘Lloyd’s List’, one of the world’s oldest running journals, was first published at Edward Lloyds Coffee House. Witherbys early business included the preparation of contracts between merchants and owners of ships and the insurance clauses associated with them. 270 years later, the company still supplies insurance clauses to the commercial marine market.

In 2005, Witherbys entered into a joint venture with Seamanship International Ltd, a Scottish based company that had found its niche in delivering high quality content. While Seamanship provided content through a range of differing delivery mechanisms and media it had exceptional expertise in the sector of electronic publishing.

Witherby Publishing Group is based in Livingston and run by partners Iain Macneil and Kat Heathcote. Iain is an ex-mariner who set up Seamanship International to design and develop training and reference materials for the shipping industry. Kat, who has a background in the energy business including with BP and Wood McKenzie, joined the company in 2004 .

The company has customers in over 180 different countries and has won a variety of awards including the Seatrade Award for best IT Application, The Lloyds List Training award and the Queen’s Award for Enterprise: International Trade.

Witherby Publishing Group is looking forward to celebrating its 275th birthday in 2015.