Express & Star Green Shoots: Business growing with £3m funding

The grants handed out via the Green Shoots Plus initiative will see more than 230 jobs created by 2017 and will generate £6m in private sector investment across the Black Country, Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Herefordshire.

A further 92 jobs have been safeguarded. The funding is provided by the Government's Regional Growth Fund and distributed through the Express & Star, the University of Wolverhampton and a panel of business experts.

South Staffordshire MP Gavin Williamson said: "What has been extraordinarily brilliant about this scheme is that it has been able to reach out to enable businesses to get help who may not normally seek assistance or feel that can do via the normal channels.

"The Express & Star and its partners should be congratulated and commended for its work in this area and benefiting the lives of so many."

To date, £3.1 million of grants have been allocated, meaning there is still just over £1.1 million available for businesses looking for support for their growth plans.

Expansion

The grants, which cover up to 30 per cent of an overall project cost.

Applicants can seek a grant worth between £10,000 and £150,000 to cover up to 30 per cent of the costs of their plans for job creation and expansion. Companies to benefit include Laystall Engineering – a 113-year-old firm based in Dixon Street, Wolverhampton.

The firm manufactures hydraulic cylinders and its biggest customer is Staffordshire giant JCB. A grant of £27,000 has been approved as part of a £90,000 project to install a robotic welding machine which will allow it to take on more work for JCB and compete for new contracts and create two new jobs.

Vivid 57 is a marketing company based in Park Lane, Wolverhampton. It has its own logistics, creative studio, and photography and print proofing facilities. It was awarded £50,000 as part of a £170,000 project to purchase new machinery to grow its flooring sector which sees it produce sample catalogues for the carpet industry. The investment will create between four to eight new jobs. Green Shoots Plus is nearly one year old and has already smashed through the 224 new job target set when it was started.

The fund is aimed at businesses working in advanced manufacturing, building technologies, transport technologies, including aerospace, environmental technologies or business to business services. Applicants need to have been turned down by their banks for the required funding and not to have had more than £175,000 in public funding in the past three years.

To apply visit www.wolverhamptonbsc.com/greenshoots