Member Article

£500k and LEP support sees Barnsley materials firm grow workforce

Barnsley indistrial fabrication specialist MB Products has invested £500k in expanding the business, moving into a larger factory and creating five new jobs.

The business was also awarded a grant as part of the investment from the Leeds City Region LEP’s Business Growth Programme, which is supported by the government’s Regional Growth Fund.

The £50k grant has enabled the company to purchase a bigger factory in Barnsley, a vital move to help the business to continue to grow.

And thanks to the LEP investment, MB Products is looking to target a much wider range of market sectors than it had previously been able to.

The business currently works in sectors ranging from healthcare to the military, supplying products that have been designed and manufactured in close collaboration with the end user.

Roger Marsh, Chair of the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership, said: “MB Products is a specialist manufacturer and as such requires advanced facilities to allow it to fulfil its potential. We are therefore delighted to have been able to assist the company to move to larger premises, retaining a growing business in one of our key sectors and resulting in new employment opportunities for people living in the Leeds City Region.

“I am pleased to hear that as a result of the new investment, MB Products is now able to take forward work it initially had to turn down due to capacity issues, and now the business is able to continue its goal of increasing the unique services it provides.”

Roger Godfrey, managing director at MB Products, said: “Our move has enabled the flow of work on the shop floor to become much more efficient. In our previous factory work was stretched across three floors - now it is all on one.

“This time saving improvement has helped our company to meet the ever increasing demand we are seeing from our expanding customer base.

“The application process for the Business Growth Programme was simple and straightforward. Advice from both the LEP and business support programme Enterprising Barnsley was invaluable as we pursued our application and both organisations provided vital guidance which eventually led to the grant being successfully received.”

The company’s expansion has also been backed by European-funded business support programme Enterprising Barnsley, which is run by Barnsley Council. Its specialist business coaches guided MB.

Enterprising Barnsley business development manager Shaun Higginbottom said: “It’s great to see such a success story in Barnsley. And it proves that with the right help businesses can grow and create vital jobs.”

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