Firms receive £60k thanks to jobs fund

The Green Shoots Fund has been offering grants to help small and medium sized companies make the most of the recent upturn. More than 160 companies applied for a share of the £1.4 million fund.

Today it can be revealed that Techniswage, a company that created part of the iconic cauldron used for the 2012 Olympic flame, and Oldbury firm Gilca, which makes products including some used to produce Apple's iPhone, have been awarded vital funds.

Techniswage, which employs just over a dozen people and makes parts for luxury Italian car maker Maserati, wants to buy new machinery and take on more work while Gilca wants to buy a water jet cutting machine to expand its own lines of trade. Between them, seven jobs will be created.

Writing for the Express & Star today, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said: "The successful companies in the Green Shoots Fund are wonderful examples of the ingenuity and drive in the Black Country. And the Express & Star should be proud to shout about them."

It comes as Prime Minister David Cameron is trying to encourage manufacturing back to Britain. The economy has been growing, with unemployment down to 7.1 per cent across the country. But the West Midlands has a higher figure than the national average of 8.1 per cent.

Green Shoots money comes from the Government's Regional Growth Fund, a multi-billion pound pot offered to businesses to help them expand. The university and the Express & Star teamed up to use a £1.4 million grant to help smaller companies navigate the red tape. Experts from the university have been offering advice throughout the process.

Gilca and Techniswage follow on from the first two recipients of Green Shoots funding announced in November.

Adams Enclosures in Brownhills will use a £50,000 grant to help create six jobs, including three at a senior level, as well as buying equipment. Phoenix Cutting Services in Wednesfield is also receiving £50,000.

Seven people work for Phoenix at its site on the Planetary Industrial Estate and five of them are directors. The grant will allow a further two jobs to be created and help to fund an overhaul of vital equipment. It expects to gain £270,000 in new sales against a turnover of £540,000 and wants to use the funding to buy a 2KW laser cutter. There is still time to make an application to the Green Shoots Fund. See www.wolverhamptonbsc.com/greenshoots for details.

The chances are that few people outside of the business world will have heard of Oldbury-based Gilca.

But there's a good chance that anyone who has used make-up or done some DIY will have come into contact with its products.

It is also making items used during the production of Jaguars and Land Rovers, as well as items that help factory workers in China produce the Apple iPhone.

Gilca is Europe's only manufacturer of 100 per cent synthetic latex sponges, used in make-up applicators and beauty accessories all over the world.

The business has been going since 1988 and was founded by Smethwick-born Kevin Smith.

Today it employs 14 people, based in Wolverhampton Road.

But while the bulk of the business has been in cosmetics so far, an opportunity has come up for Gilca to get further involved with supplying luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover, as well as branch out more in the DIY market – if only they can get the right kit.

The Green Shoots Fund is all about supporting innovation.

It is new lines of business that will be vital if manufacturers in the Black Country are to keep their competitive edge when faced with cheap labour in developing countries.

Gilca's grant of £27,359 will let it buy a new water jet cutting machine which will serve its needs both in the JLR chain and the DIY market.

The new machinery will help it meet the demands of the Chinese market as well as its domestic customers.

It means potentially five jobs as well over the next 18 months.

Mr Smith, aged 55, said: "We're manufacturing things that we export to China at a time when a lot of products are being imported. So we must be doing something right."

The products that go to China are used during the production of Apple's iPhone, which is the best selling mobile phone in the world.

Around half of the business is in cosmetics but the company has branched out into automotive work.

Other companies who supply Jaguar Land Rover with items that need to be protected – such as wing mirrors, gear knobs or external trim – will use Gilca's products during transit.

It also makes the foam pads and cellulose sponges used in decorating products supplied by Wickes and Homebase.

Its cosmetic sponges go into products sold by Poundland and Bodycare.

"People buy these goods and don't know that they're actually coming from the UK. They think they're all imported from the far east," said Mr Smith.

The Green Shoots funding matches the company's own investment and because it is a grant the money will not have to be repaid with interest.

Mr Smith said: "I don't think there has been enough emphasis in on pushing what British suppliers can do.

"We're showing you can make a product completely in the UK."