Tag Archives: marches growth hub

Midlands News, News

Bright future as lighting company makes the switch

A specialist lighting company from Herefordshire has transformed its production process and expanded its workforce thanks to support from the Marches Growth Hub.

Hector Finch Lighting Ltd received a £30,000 Business Growth Programme grant to help owners Hector and Emma Finch expand into new premises in Leominster. As a result of the move, the business has brought its manufacturing processes in-house and created up to eight new jobs.

It was supported by the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership’s business support service, the Marches Growth Hub, delivered in Herefordshire by the LEP’s partners, Herefordshire Council.

Emma said: “The grant from the Business Growth Programme (BGP) supported the purchase of kit-out costs in our new home at Easters Court as well as creating a new loading bay and bringing the production in-house.

“The Marches Growth Hub was hugely helpful in supporting us to access the funding and we initially aimed to create three jobs but we’ve created more than that. The whole experience has been extremely positive for us.

“Our ability to grow since we have been at Easters Court has helped to deliver 50 per cent growth in the last two years. We would never have managed that in our old premises because we just physically didn’t have the space, either for the stock or the production, the boxes or the staff.”

Hector Finch Lighting designs and manufactures light fittings, about 80 per cent of which are exported to American interior designers working in high-end properties. The business also fulfils some commercial contracts with quality hotels and restaurants.

Emma said contract details for the new premises meant that the BGP application process was very time sensitive. The company was supported in the application by the Marches Growth Hub Herefordshire team from Herefordshire Council.

She said: “We worked closely with the Marches Growth Hub to put the application together as it can be demanding but it was an interesting process. In many ways, it helps you discipline yourself to really think about what you are wanting to achieve out of the project and to put together a business plan and really work the figures through in a meaningful way. I would say it was a pretty positive experience all round.”

Hector added: “With the new investment we have tried to make it much more of a full manufacturing process. What we buy in is the basic raw material, which is mainly brass, and we manufacture most of our components here on site with our new CNC machinery.

“The lights are then metal-finished and wired in-house. This is a big change on where we were a short time ago, when a lot of all the components, and the finishing and any painting, were all outsourced.”

Amongst the new employees are skilled local engineers who had previously been made redundant. Emma said the new premises were also helping to reduce the company’s carbon footprint, both by reducing the number of miles components were being transported and through better insulation and energy saving.

Part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Birmingham City Council, the Business Growth Programme offers grants of £2,500 to £1,000,000 and is designed to strengthen supply chains, stimulate innovation and help businesses grow. The programme is available to both start-ups and existing B2B SMEs in Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin.

Grant funding is limited and subject to availability for companies which meet the eligibility criteria.

For more information about the Business Growth Programme and other grants available to businesses, visit marchesgrowthhub.co.uk

News

Help at hand for companies to develop international markets

Companies across the Marches are being urged to take advantage of a fund to help them develop their international markets.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) has launched its new Internationalisation Fund for eligible businesses in England.

Match-funded grants of between £1,000 and £9,000 will be available to help support companies which want to develop and expand their international operations.

To secure a grant, companies will need to fund a proportion of the costs themselves. This will be either 40 or 50 per cent of the total cost.

The funding can be used to help meet the cost of:

  • Market research
  • Intellectual property advice
  • Translation services
  • International social media/SEO
  • Trade fairs (where no TAP funding is available)
  • Independent market visits
  • Consultancy and other international commercial services

Marches LEP Access to Finance champion Paul Kalinauckas urged businesses across the region to make use of the fund.

“This funding can offer real help to businesses across Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin to develop their global footprint. If any company is thinking of developing or expanding their international operations, this fund can be a huge help.”

To qualify for funding, the business must be based in England, be a small or medium sized enterprise (SME) with up to 250 employees, have an annual turnover of less than €50 million or annual balance sheet of no more than €43 million and no more than 25% of the business should be owned by an enterprise which is not a SME.

The fund is supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

 

Finance and Banking, Midlands News, News

Design and print company builds for the future thanks to grant support

A thriving Shropshire design and print company is building for the future thanks to £10,000 of help from a grant programme.

Newport-based AYP Ltd secured the support through the Small Equipment Grant scheme to help it purchase a new digital die cutter, which will allow it to expand and offer more services to clients.

The grant scheme is supported by the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership and its business support arm, the Marches Growth Hub, and receives European Regional Development Fund assistance.

AYP managing director Martin Hall – who founded the business with his wife Sandra in 2006 – said the grant was crucial in helping the company to invest in its future and offer a wider range of services to both new and existing customers.

“The grant has allowed us to invest in a Veloblade Volta, a bespoke die cutting machine, which will enable us to produce one-off samples without going to the expense of having a cutting tool made and then sending the work out to a finishing company.

“Not only will we save time and money as a result of installing the machine, but we will be able to diversify into new target markets such as packaging because we will have the capacity to cut materials to any shape and size.

“This is cutting-edge equipment so we can now offer services and products which are not widely available elsewhere. We’ll be able to run single sheets to trial new concepts which will also greatly reduce paper and card waste and the expense of transporting materials to different sites.

“There is no doubt that this grant and the equipment it has helped provide has made us more robust by broadening our customer base and range of products.”

Rachel Laver, Marches LEP chief executive, said: “This is another example of how the Marches LEP and Marches Growth Hub can help deliver real support to companies across the region so that they can plan for the future and grow.

“The support on offer from the Marches Growth Hub has enabled hundreds of businesses like AYP to expand and will continue to do so.”

Small Equipment Grant programme manager Caroline Cattle said the scheme had proved hugely successful.

“We have been able to help companies across Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin invest in the equipment they need to grow, which is good for them and for the overall economy. The scheme remains open and we would particularly welcome applications from Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin.”

Grants of between £1,000 and £10,000 are available under the programme.

The grant is available as a contribution of up to 50 per cent and primarily covers B2B companies. Items purchased must exceed £500 in value and have a life expectancy of three years. Eligible projects must lead to the creation of at least one part-time job within six months or the creation of a new product or service to be used by other businesses.

Because of restrictions imposed by the ERDF, the scheme is not available to retail businesses, restaurants, drinking establishments and fast food takeaways, online retail or rental businesses, farms involved in primary production, or local social welfare facilities.

Herefordshire Council is the accountable body for the scheme.

Midlands News, News

Marches region awarded £10 million of funding for innovation projects

Nearly £10m of funding has been awarded to organisations in the Marches to develop innovative projects tackling issues as diverse as sustainability, an ageing population and Covid challenges.

Innovate UK approved nearly 30 projects for the funding in 2020/21, with the majority awarded for business-led innovation in response to the global disruption caused by the pandemic.

One of the largest awards made nationally was for a collaborative project led by Veolia, which will result in the development of the UK’s first dedicated recycling line for trays and non food bottles, unlocking the UK tray recycling capability. The project was awarded £34.7m and will take place over 3 years.

The figures were revealed today by the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership’s business support service, the Marches Growth Hub (MGH). The MGH works with Innovate UK to promote funding for research and development projects in Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin.

LEP Access to Finance champion Paul Kalinauckas said Innovate UK funding was vital to developing and delivering projects which make a real difference to regional economies and communities.

“Nearly 30 different projects secured funding in our region tackling issues such as an ageing society, health and nutrition, waste in manufacturing,  home learning and working during the pandemic and innovation in medtech and healthcare in direct response to the Covid crisis.

“It is fantastic to see not just the innovation being explored in these projects, but also the wider economic, social and environmental challenges which are being addressed.

“This is just one of a huge number of finance programmes and opportunities the Marches LEP and Marches Growth Hub help support which can provide companies with much-needed funding to drive growth.”

Telford software development company Bronze Labs is behind the Tribe Project – which won nearly £50,000 for a collaborative bid to develop technology to support the co-ordination of volunteers and communities during the Covid lockdown.

Richard Howells, Managing Director of Bronze Labs, said: “Our proposal centred on a digital approach to facilitate the scaling of ‘trusted’ community groups which responded to COVID-19 community demand. The focus was on providing a solution to facilitate coordination, planning and action of broad spectrum community need between voluntary organisations and local government.”

The company developed app technology to categorise and ultimately predict the movement of community ‘need’ across society through use of machine learning. The Tribe Project has used the technology to support and co-ordinate volunteer efforts including reaching vulnerable members of society during the Covid lockdowns.

Other successful funded projects include:

  • Leominster-based Grove Design secured £74,000 to develop a design and prototyping of a clear face mask which allows lip reading for those who are deaf or have hearing loss.

 

  • Earth Rover, based at the Agri-Epi Centre near Newport, led a consortium bid for £175,000 to build prototype equipment which will contribute to solving the problem of a shortage of seasonal agricultural labour required to pick crops due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and Brexit. The robots use an AI-powered vision system to select in-spec broccoli and leave crop growing so reducing crop waste.

 

  • Shrewsbury-based Interactive Opportunities Ltd secured £49,000 to scale-up its online platform designed to support learning from home during the pandemic. The project provides a community, support and advice for parents, carers and teachers while making the most of the creative talents of teachers, celebrities and entertainers who are keen to help others.

 

  • Stok.ly in Hereford received £74,000 to develop the Stok.ly “community eCommerce” platform – an innovative solution to enable local retailers such as butchers, bakers, cafes, delis and grocers to sell their goods online to local communities from a community website.

 

Businesses interested in applying for Innovation UK funding can find out more at https://www.marchesgrowthhub.co.uk/support/innovate-uk/