Member Article

£35k investment sets Barnsley environmental firm on the road to global expansion

A £35k business loan is helping a Barnsley-based environmental company, Oceans ESU, to further expand its services in Europe and around the world.

Oceans ESU will use the investment from Finance Yorkshire to develop existing services and introduce new ones.

Established in 1992, Oceans ESU is an environmental management company providing reed beds for polluted waters, alongside contaminated land services, air, dust and vapour monitoring and consultancy services.

Customers include UK supermarkets, as well as petroleum companies in South Sudan, Malaysia, India and the UK.

The company has a long-standing relationship with the environmental sector in East Africa and has recently announced its first contract with the world’s newest country, the Republic of South Sudan. It has also recently completed its first reed bed project in Malaysia.

Co-director Michelle Gill runs Oceans ESU with her father, Dr Lucian Gill. She said: “This Business Loan from Finance Yorkshire gives us the working capital we need to further develop our work in South Sudan, as well as opening up new markets in Kenya and Poland.”

Finance Yorkshire portfolio manager David Ward said: “Oceans ESU is a well-respected Yorkshire business doing valuable work in countries around the world.

“We are pleased that this Business Loan will help them to develop products and services in existing markets including the UK and South Sudan, in addition to opening up entirely new markets such as Poland and Kenya.”

To date Finance Yorkshire has made 609 investments totalling over £76 million.

Finance Yorkshire provides seedcorn, loan and equity linked investments, ranging from £15k to £2 million to help a range of small and medium sized businesses to meet their funding requirements for growth and development.

The project is supported financially by the European Union. It has attracted £30million investment from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of Europe’s support for the region’s economic development through the Yorkshire and Humber ERDF Programme, £15 million from UK Government and £45 million match funding from the European Investment Bank.

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