Member Article

£2.2m investment for Sheffield road provider with £400k from LEP

A Sheffield temporary road provider is growing its export operations to Germany with help from a £400,000 grant from Sheffield City LEP.

From 2014, LION Trackhire will invest over £2.2 million to grow its business in German and European markets. The growing company will create 30 new jobs by March 2016, almost doubling its existing workforce.

LION Trackhire joins the growing number of businesses to benefit from LEP’s “Unlocking Business Investment” programme, which is currently helping 88 projects to grow and create local jobs.

By January 2014, the programme had allocated over £28 million which led to over £190 million of investment in the Sheffield City Region. These projects are expected to create or safeguard over 3,000 local jobs by March 2016.

The LEP has just announced that it will be extending the deadline for applications to the end of this month, and is calling on local businesses to visit the website to find out how they can apply.

LION Trackhire, based in Worksop, is the market leader in portable roadways and access solutions to the events and construction sectors. LION Trackhire is Europe’s fastest growing portable roadway company, and was recently listed 26th in The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 league table, an annual ranking of Britain’s 100 fastest growing private companies.

LION Trackhire’s Director Dale Robinson said: “LION is an ambitious company with significant plans to grow in the Sheffield City Region.

“The LEP’s local RGF programme has given our fast growing company the ability to grow even faster – creating more jobs and more exports in 2014.

“The local RGF programme, led by the LEP and supported by Sheffield City Council, has been a smooth process from our perspective.

“I would strongly encourage any other company with a strong plan for growth to visit the LEP’s website and apply.”

Decisions on where to invest the RGF money are made by the LEP RGF Steering Group, which is led by leaders from successful businesses in the Sheffield City Region. LEP Board Member David Grey MBE, Group Managing Director of OSL Group Holdings, is part of the LEP RGF Steering group.

He said: “The aim of the LEP’s RGF programme is to maximise the growth opportunities for businesses in the City Region whilst securing the maximum value for the public money invested.

“We have a good track record of securing excellent value for public money by rigorously evaluating the plans put forward by local businesses.

“This has allowed us to perform significantly better than the national RGF programme, partly because we really know the businesses in our City Region.

“By making prudent investments linked to long-term business strategy, we have been able to use funding in a way that makes a real, long-term difference to the fortunes of individual companies and to the Sheffield City Region more generally.”

The LEP is now accepting applications for new projects, and companies can find out how to apply on the LEP website www.sheffieldcityregion.org.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .