Member Article

Investment fund opens doors for North East businesses

Bdaily recently spoke with Tracey Watson, senior project manager for Investment for Growth, an investment fund for North East SMEs.

The fund provides grants for companies who are planning to improve and grow their business through investing in a wide range of business projects including; branding and marketing, product development, expansion and change management, process and systems improvements, and environmental and efficiency programmes.

Tracey explained: “Investment for Growth was set up in response to the restrictions in mainstream funding where the Government have focussed on high growth potential, and getting people into work.

“A lot of smaller companies in the North East fall between these categories, and can miss out. Investment for Growth is really about targeting this category, with a focus on consistency.”

Funded by the European Regional Development Fund, Investment for Growth aims to drive sustainable business expansion by helping businesses to access support from the right service provider for their project.

To be eligible, businesses must fall within the European definition of an SME; that is a company of less than 250 employees, with an annual turnover of £50m or under. Companies must be North East based, and operate business-to-business.

“This fund is to help companies access specialists/consultancy support they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. We want to make sure they have the right support; whether that’s in forward planning, financial risk management, or quality management. We will appoint a business advisor to help them with these aspects,” Tracey added.

Investment for Growth are hoping to reach as many relevant businesses as possible, and aim to permeate regional networks in order to spread the message about the potential for SMEs.

Tracey continued: “We are really trying to educate networks and providers about the project, bringing them together so they can show their customers where they might benefit from the money. They can help us in reaching the right candidates, if they understand eligibility and what we aim to achieve.

“In the past we have always had Government money, but this is ERDF only. We need to be able to demonstrate results from spending, with the view to securing more funding in the future.”

As part of this longitudinal focus for the strategy, Tracey explained that Investment for Growth have developed key areas for investment.

She said: “We are also ring-fencing certain pots of funding for specific areas that we want to ‘fast track’. So, for example, we have £250,000 for the first 75 eligible companies that come to us about improving their website and ICT infrastructure. Similarly, in the future we will have focus on energy efficiency investments, and another sum will be ring-fenced for this.”

Already, a number of successful cases have emerged from Investment for Growth. HoseTech North East, a specialist hosing and hydraulic parts firm, has used the fund to grow its sales and marketing operation.

Boss John Jackson is an engineer by trade, and had little knowledge of this field; the Investment for Growth project funding provided him with the required expertise to get going.

Another business that has benefited from the fund is Darlington-based JobHAT; a niche SME focused recruitment service.

Investment for Growth advisor John Heslop worked with the founders of the business throughout their application, and was impressed by the idea that filled a gap in the market left by traditional recruitment agencies.

Co-founder Adrian Green, said: “The team at Investment for Growth really bought into our idea for JobHAT.

“As a young business I was well aware of how important funding would be to the growth of the company but worried I wouldn’t have the time to devote to the application process.

“In fact the Investment for Growth application process was incredibly easy and the ability to check our progress online a godsend.”

Grants of up to 40% of the total project value are still available to firms in the North East wanting to put into place business development projects that will secure jobs and help them grow.

If you are interested in finding out more about Investment for Growth, you can visit www.investment4growth.co.uk; text ‘growth’ to 60777; or call 0191 4266408 to speak to an advisor, who take you through an initial assessment.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .