Member Article

125 new businesses set up in North East and Cumbria with Start-Up Loans scheme

Over 120 new businesses have been established in the North East and Cumbria with the help of Start-Up Loans, and funding from BIS.

Almost £700k of loans have been distributed to entrepreneurs in the retail, film and hospitality sectors.

The scheme, operated by a consortium of Virgin Money, Virgin Unite, The Northern Rock Foundation (NRF) and Project North East (PNE), offer young entrepreneurs aged 18 to 30 low-cost funding to start-up their businesses, together with mentoring and marketing support.

A number of the new start-up business owners have also had the chance to meet Sir Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin brand.

Branson attended a gathering of the new businesses at Virgin Money’s Gosforth site in February, and also invited five of the North East’s brightest new start-up companies to a ‘Fast Track 100’ event at his family home in Oxfordshire in May.

They met and shared their business ideas with him over lunch, and each had the opportunity to pitch their business plan, receiving feedback from some of Britain’s most successful entrepreneurs and leaders of Fast Track 100 companies.

Richard Clark, director of Workspace at PNE, said: “Project North East has been delighted to help these young people to launch their business here in the North East and Cumbria, with a start-up loan during 2013.

“We wish them all good luck for the future and hope that their businesses will be very successful for many years to come.”

Pete Wood, head of Social Enterprise Projects at Virgin Money added: “It’s wonderful to be able to look back over such a fantastic year. The creation of these businesses is great news for the region and the popularity of the scheme demonstrates the innovation, creativity and drive we have in the North East and Cumbria.

“This scheme has given young entrepreneurs access to start-up funding, at a time when it might otherwise have been difficult, and has allowed these young business people to take those all important first steps into the world of business.”

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