£8m has been made available from the Local Growth Fund to support small and medium sized businesses in the Humber area to make capital investments and create jobs.

The funding was secured by the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) as part of its recent Growth Deal. The funding will be used to extend the LEP’s successful Growing the Humber grant programme which has already supported more than 300 businesses with £25m in grants and levered in almost £120m private investment.

Growing the Humber is designed to help businesses make capital investments which will lead to job creation. The programme has so far helped to create more than 1800 jobs with 540 due to be created in the near future. The additional funding is set to lead to the creation of another 525 jobs in the Humber.

In Growing the Humber Round 3, small and medium businesses that have been trading for at least a year and are ready to grow can apply for a grant to support capital purchases. Projects could include buying equipment and machinery or extending and refurbishing premises to enable the business to be more productive and grow their customer base.

Businesses that have previously been successful in applying for a Growing the Humber grant include:

• UK Trailer Parts, a Grimsby-based business that manufactures and supplies load restraint equipment to the haulage sector received a grant to support a move to larger premises and extend the range of services offered to the logistics sector.
• Pipers Crisps, a producer of premium potato crisps in North Lincolnshire, was awarded a grant to invest in plant and equipment that will increase factory output to meet increased product demand.
• Agenda Resource Management, a family run business in the East Riding undertaking security screening, resource management and marketing successfully applied for funding to expand and refurbish the head office in order to grow the business.
• Sports Identity is a Hull-based signage manufacture company servicing the sporting sector. They were awarded a grant to support investment in more efficient and environmentally friendly printing technology, enabling them to provide a greater range of services and appeal to new markets.

Grant applications are assessed by an Investment Panel of private sector business leaders who between them have knowledge and skills of business management, finance, law and property. David Kilburn of MKM Building Supplies is Chair of the panel and said:

“Growing the Humber has already been successful in helping businesses of all shapes and sizes to make key investments that enable them to grow and employ more people. We are pleased that additional money from the Local Growth Fund allows us to continue providing support to businesses that promote economic growth for the Humber”

Rob Daysley, Managing Director at Sport Identity, one of the businesses that has benefitted from funding, said:

“The introduction of the new machinery has increased our workflow, reducing the ‘bottleneck’ in production and giving us the ability to produce more internally.

“The reduction in outsourcing gives us a further competitive edge in finding new customers and markets and also means that as the business is able to grow, more money will be retained within the local economy.”

Tracey Gillet, Financial Director at UK Trailer Parts said:

“We would definitely recommend that others apply for the grant to help grow their business. We are already reaping the benefits.

“There is a huge amount of untapped work available. With the ability to increase productivity, it means that we can now pursue bigger contracts and are able to fulfil them in a timely manner.”

Growing the Humber is now open for new applications. If your business has a project for which it is looking for funding and you are interested in applying for a grant, you can find out more by accessing the Humber LEP’s website at www.humberlep.org, calling the Humber LEP on 01482 485260 or emailing funding@humberlep.org
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