It's the business! £2m fund up for grabs for local firms
Businesses can apply for more than £2 million to create jobs through the fund set up by the Express & Star with the University of Wolverhampton.
The Green Shoots Plus fund has handed close to £1m to local companies, with a further £1m earmarked to companies who have submitted applications.
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.
With £4.1m in total available until the summer of 2017, there is more than £2m available for businesses wanting to expand and create new positions.
Green Shoots Plus aims to create and safeguard more than 370 jobs at small and medium enterprises (SMEs) across the Black Country, Stafford, South Staffordshire, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and Herefordshire. Since it went live last summer, 118 new jobs have been created while a further 41 existing posts have been safeguarded. The fund has also generated £3.25m of private sector contribution.
The project, administered by the University of Wolverhampton and overseen by a panel of expert business leaders, uses money from the government's Regional Growth Fund. Panel member Chris Leggett, brand and communications manager for Express & Star publisher Midland News Association, said: "The panel has already been able to help some fantastic local companies from across a range of sectors as they grow their businesses. Funding for expansion remains a challenge for so many businesses." The fund is aimed at businesses working in advanced manufacturing.
Link Business received a £59,000 grant, using the cash to relocate to the Coppice Side Industrial Estate in Brownhills. West Bromwich-based Longwear Alloys was awarded cash to create three jobs.
Venture Pressings in Cradley Heath and
Total Construction Supplies have also benefitted. A&T Enclosures new project will increase the speed, accuracy and efficiency of production in Dudley. 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 or call 01902 321272.
Green Shoots Plus is a bigger and wider-ranging successor to the pioneering Green Shoots Fund, which has distributed more than £1 million in grants to 35 businesses.
