“ Since 2017 , ten loans with a value of nearly £ 7m have been awarded securing a further £ 9.7m of additional investment .
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Connected ID
£ 150,000 loan
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Potts Partnership
£ 276,500 loan
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Clinical Partners Ltd £ 250,000 loan |
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Growing Places Infrastructure Fund SWLEP ’ s Growing Places Infrastructure Fund ( GPIF ) capital revolving loan fund has had another successful year with three applications resulting in an additional £ 676,500 of loans to businesses in Swindon and Wiltshire which otherwise would not have had the investment they required to expand their operation .
Since 2017 , ten loans with a value of nearly £ 7m have been awarded securing a further £ 9.7m of additional investment .
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SWLEP awarded a loan to Corshambased , Connected ID , to help develop a takeaway app enabling restaurant owners to deliver more cost effectively to the doorstep . They are rolling it out initially across the South West and outlets in other locations nationwide are very interested . The app capitalises on the growing number of people still wanting home deliveries alongside restaurants , hit by the COVID-19 pandemic , to drive up their revenue .
Jamie Dickinson , Director , said “ The GPIF loan fund was invaluable in allowing us to invest in a complete solution encompassing all facets of the delivery system . Without the support of the team at SWLEP , our project to provide a more cost effective solution than multinational food delivery companies to all the independent restaurants and bars in Bristol and beyond would have not been possible . Our customers can now retain more of the margin on food delivery which will go some way safeguarding jobs in the hospitality sector .”
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Michelle Potts , Director , said , “ The GPIF growth loan enabled us to build production rooms and invest in new machinery so that we can now run three to four lines instead of one or two . We now have a pouch filling line , two sachet filling lines and an automated glass filling line that can be run simultaneously . This , and increasing our staffing numbers from ten to 26 full-time and five to eight part-time , has allowed us to take on a new recipe box ambient sachet business , worth £ 1 million per year as well as cope with the uplift in demand we experienced for our products .
We ’ ve seen an uplift in demand through online , independent and our own label manufacturing customers . Plus , we have recently gained listings with two more supermarkets and an additional fixture in Tesco ; Morrisons and Sainsbury ’ s taking our aluminium canned ready-to-use stocks and Tesco launching our pioneering two Mexican cooking sauces in fully recyclable aluminum cans , a global first . This has grown our turnover from £ 950k in 2019 to £ 1.6million in 2020 and puts us in a good position to achieve the £ 3 million turnover we modestly forecast for 2021 .”
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Clinical Partners , based in Semley , was introduced to the SWLEP via Innovate UK in January 2020 . The firm specialises in mental health provision and when COVID-19 hit they recognised the need to transfer face-to-face services to online provision . The GPIF loan was used to upgrade and develop the CRM system and digitise the operational front and backend processes , for example with more consultations via video link .
Growth has been rapid , with a large increase in demand for mental health provision as a result of the pandemic . The company has been awarded ten NHS Trust / Clinical Commissioning Group contracts , helping reduce well-publicised NHS waiting lists , as well as servicing growing private mental healthcare demand . Clinical Partners Ltd now delivers 35,000 outpatient appointments per year .
As a result , the company ’ s headcount has grown rapidly from 20 employees in 2019 to 60 , with further recruitment underway .
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