28 October 2014

120 new jobs are set to be created in the latest round of grants awarded from the Coast to Capital Business Growth Grant scheme with nine companies receiving a slice of almost £500,000.

120 new jobs are set to be created in the latest round of grants awarded from the Coast to Capital Business Growth Grant scheme with nine companies receiving a slice of almost £500,000.


The Business Growth Grants programme, managed by Coast to Capital, Brighton and Hove City Council and commercial partners, helps local small and medium-sized enterprises expand their businesses by supporting projects such as skills improvement, research and development and investment in equipment or premises.

The successful applicants demonstrated how their proposals would increase local employment. Grants ranged in size from £5,000 awarded to Surrey-based Shippo, to £137,000 for Brighton-based software company TImNexus, who will spend the money on staff development to meet the fresh challenges of changing technology.

Other beneficiaries included the Ridgeview Winery Estate, whose new bottling process will almost treble production, energy solutions firm Black Box Energy, who will provide additional customer support facilities, and the Young Start Up Talent project, which is expanding into Croydon.

Coast to Capital chief executive Ron Crank said the latest round of grants showed how significant a role small and medium sized enterprises had to play in our local economy.

"As a local enterprise partnership concerned with supporting and encouraging local businesses, we are able to help many companies and groups make a real difference" Ron said. "These businesses are the drivers of our regional economy, so we are pleased to be able to support them and I encourage others in a similar situation to get in touch with my team at Coast to Capital to see if we are able to help their growth plans."

The following companies are the latest to have been awarded a Business Growth Grant:

- Ridgeview Winery Estate based in mid-Sussex, to upgrade their bottling line
- Natterbox to fit out new offices in the 'No. 1 Croydon building'.
- Silicon Networks Ltd based in Hove to further develop the MiFinder App for Android and add new features
- Black Box Energy based in Worthing to establish a customer support call centre and online facility for energy consumption-related enquiries
- Shippo based in Surrey, to invest in staff training and development
- Young Start Up Talent to expand their operations and work into Croydon
- Aegis Rubber based in Haywards Heath, to invest in new machine shop technology and equipment
- TImNexus based in Brighton to increase their development and support team to deal with new technologies
- The Base Skate Park based in Bognor Regis to create an indoor skate park for use by skateboarders, scooters, BMXers and Inline skaters

Following a high number of applications, the current round of funding is now closed for new proposals.. It is hoped a new round of funding will become available early in 2015. To discover more visit www.coast2capital.org.uk/helping-business-growth/regional-growth-fund.

The Government's Regional Growth Fund is a £3.2 billion fund designed to help companies in England to grow. So far £2.9 billion of funding has been allocated to support projects and programmes committed to deliver sustainable jobs and economic growth. The sixth round is now closed and received 174 applications, allocations will be announced in early 2015. For more information, please go to http://www.bis.gov.uk/rgf

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