Member Article

Rotherham businesses offered help with United States expansion

Businesses in Rotherham will now be able to take advantage of support to set up an operation in North America, thanks to a new partnership between RiDO (Rotherham Investment Development Office) and the Enterprise Development Center (EDC) of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, based in Newark, USA.

The partnership came about after representatives of RiDO’s ERDF-funded Growth and Prosperity in Rotherham (Soft Landing Zone) project pro-actively built links with the EDC after they recognised the benefits to local small businesses of trading with or expanding their operations in the US.

The agreement also means that North America-based businesses will have the opportunity to expand their opportunities into Rotherham, potentially generating new employment opportunities in the area.

Amanda Parris, business development manager for RiDO, said: “We were aware of the great work that EDC does in helping international businesses to expand their operations in North America, so we began negotiations with them to see if they could also help Rotherham businesses.

“There are a large number of local businesses that could benefit by establishing an operation in the US and EDC could be the right overseas partner to help them do this.

“We are very excited about what this will mean for businesses in Rotherham.”

Jerry Creighton, of the EDC in New Jersey, said: “We are pleased to be working with RiDO to extend our network of international incubators and business development centres.

“We will be able to act as a Soft Landing zone for any Rotherham business which wishes to expand into this part of the US and we look forward to working with them.”

The ERDF Soft Landing Zone project is supported financially by the European Union.

It has attracted £842k investment from the European Regional Development Fund as part of Europe’s support for the region’s economic development through the Yorkshire and Humber ERDF Programme 2007-13.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Lane .