2021 proved to be a successful year in terms of demand for the £8.9 million capital grant scheme, which provides financial support to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in County Durham to help accelerate their growth. The fund is managed by Business Durham, the business support service of Durham County Council in partnership with UMi.
As well as the £1.98 million grants awarded to SMEs and businesses, the Fund leveraged a further £3.1million in private sector investment.
Each of the 17 companies supported secured a sizeable investment grant to help them buy new machinery and equipment, increase capacity, develop new products or move into larger premises.
The capital grant funding supports both established and new businesses who are looking to either expand or set up new operations in County Durham.
Peterlee based EB Granite received a grant to invest in new machinery to improve efficiency and increase capacity. Mark Ellis co-founder of the company said: “The business has grown every year since it was set up and the demand for our services was continuing to increase. We knew there was scope to bring in a lot more work but the machinery we had was outdated, around a decade old, and just wasn’t working as quickly and efficiently as we needed it to. “We know we have an excellent reputation within the industry and people travel from all over the region for our products and services. The demand is there and with the investment we’ve made in the new machinery, with the funding we received from the Durham County Council programme, we know we’re now ideally placed to bring in bigger contracts that often require a faster turnaround.”
North East Bi-Folds Ltd received a grant to extend the company’s current premises in Seaham together with investing in additional plant and machinery. Andrea Meah, from the company said: “We’d grown rapidly and had reached a point where we were supplying most of the house-builders in the North East. However, we needed more space and the machinery we were using was old and was starting to malfunction, so we knew if we were to continue to grow, we needed to invest.
“Our accountant suggested that we apply to the County Durham Growth Fund for grant support and thankfully we were successful.”