Ten businesses are set to create dozens of jobs after securing funding offers at the latest round of the Birmingham Post Growth Fund.
Manufacturers and creative agencies accounted for the majority of the winners from the Post’s latest Investors’ Fortress event, and the firms will share almost £700,000-worth of funding towards job-creating expansion plans if they meet due diligence criteria.
The funding is set to see 84 jobs created, after unlocking potential for firms to invest in machinery and general expansion, and is also set to create more than 100 additional apprenticeships.
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It is part of a wider commitment to create 250 jobs through the £5 million handed to the Post and partner Bournville College, to distribute on behalf of the Regional Growth Fund.
Signage contractor Hollywood Monster was among the biggest potential success stories on the day, after convincing judges to part with funding to aid plans for a £415,000 expansion.
The Tyseley-based firm plans to create eight jobs in the next six months, and a further eight in coming years, by investing £160,000 in the latest printing machine – which no other city firm currently owns.
Director Simon McKenzie told the judges: “This is a fairly new product in the market – dye sublimation printing – and we currently can’t offer it to our clients.
“Our clients are asking us to offer it to them and at the moment they are having to go elsewhere.”
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Elsewhere, engineering firm FT Transformers unlocked plans to invest close to £425,000 by securing a funding offer from judges.
The Kings Norton-based firm, which boasts more than 60 years of heritage, plans to create 16 jobs after creating a new and safer transformer to be used on trains.
Managing director Bob Wright said: “We are the only company that has developed a transformer that has zero ‘inrush’. It has taken us two years, but now we plan to sell it to Network Rail, the underground and across Europe.”
The Post Growth Fund was launched to offer funds to companies that want to expand and create jobs but find themselves stifled by the tough economic climate.
Funded through the Government’s Regional Growth Fund, the Post will either create or secure 250 jobs through the initiative.
The latest event, at the Village Hotel in Shirley, was the last, as the vast majority of the funding has now been distributed to firms across the region.
Plus 8 Industries, the company behind a range of bicycle security gadgets under the banner of Hiplok, was the first to secure a funding offer from the five judges on the day.
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Ben Smith, director of the Coventry-based firm, said the funding would help expansion plans as while it has gained international revenue in the majority of territories it supplied only a fraction of retailers. He said: “We launched the product without a single sale. We created a video, which went quite viral, and we started to pick up retailers immediately.”
The firm supplies 200 stores in the 海角视频 and distributes to 12 countries, and is on target to turn over more than £350,000 this year.
Creative agency ORB secured an offer for part of the £69,000 it was asking for as part of plans to expand.
Founder Robert Bloxham said the Alpha Tower-based branding firm was established in the higher education sector – with Oxford University and Aston University among its clients – and he saw major growth possibilities.
He told the judges: “There is a real need for the universities to spend more on marketing to drive the numbers up, and we have already got experience with Oxford University and Aston Business School.
“We see the opportunity as one we need to take now, not in the next five years, and we want to use our experience to bring work to Birmingham, not to see it go to London or Manchester.”
Meanwhile, Sutton Coldfield-based Fairway Training Healthcare was also given a conditional offer of funding towards expansion plans that could see more than 120 jobs created through apprenticeships.
On the back of scandals such as Stafford Hospital, the firm has seen an increase in demand for care-related training courses – and director Alex O’Neil said this is likely to grow on the back of legislation in the next year, following the Cavendish Review into the NHS and social care.
Mr O’Neil said: “There is a need for more fundamental care training, which is demanded by the sector. After Stafford Hospital, the sector knows it has to up its game.
“That will lead to a requirement for complex care needs, and the training business will be able to answer that by offering care staff which reach the required standards.”
The growth fund allows for applications for grants from £10,000 to £100,000 from small businesses in Birmingham, Solihull and Coventry.
It has funded dozens of companies, creating and safeguarding hundreds of jobs since it was launched.
Demand for the funding, which aims to boost long-term jobs and assist businesses develop the skills to maximise any investment, has risen in recent months as firms learn more about the fund.
Faraday Wharf-based online gaming firm Flaming Pumpkins secured funding towards plans for a new platform fellow games developers need to transfer their work across different hardware.
The firm plans to create five new skilled jobs, and director Charles Horn said a major opportunity had been created with developers shifting games to a platform called Unity.
He said: “It is like the planets aligning because we have got millions of designers going to unity and lots of new consoles coming onto the market, like the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.”
Meanwhile, video production firm Ember Television secured an offer of more than £28,000 to create three new jobs.
The Digbeth-based firm plans to use the finding to expand and buy new equipment.
Founder Robin Powell told the judges: “Whereas our rivals focus on making a splash, we see our role as more than just the number of views – it is who those viewers are.”
Clothing manufacturer Tie Creators also secured an offer of funding from judges.
The Handsworth-based firm plans to create five jobs through expansion after investing in print technology to be able to turn around bespoke tie orders quickly.
Managing director Narinder Gogna said: “We are at a point where we are actually having to turn people away. This is a market with an unmet need.
“Only one or two companies know how to do this process, and this is a 海角视频-based company.”
Author and policeman Thomas Ellis secured conditional funding towards his plans to launch Bukbro, an eBook retailing website that relies on one-off charges rather than taking a percentage cut from each sale.
He was inspired to set up the site after his experiences of marketing Reunion, his first book, and plans to create up to five jobs running it.
He said: “What I found was there has been a rapid decline in traditional book stores, with many closing. The market is online, but people want to be able to browse and engage more with books, and that is not something Amazon offers.”
Pure Craft Bars secured some of the funding it asked for as part of plans for a new bar which will match craft beers with suitable food.
In all, 17 firms made it through to the judging, but many were turned down for not meeting criteria.
Ten won funding on the day. Among those to be turned down were game developer +AsDesigned Games, Projects Host, a company which has developed biometric testing to combat online fraud and digital dashboard creator Vueer.
MediaTab, a business offering news on tablets to be distributed to hairdressers throughout the country and oil and gas industry innovator Datatecnics also failed to secure funding.
Judges decided that two firms would require further investigation before a decision on funding can be reached – Cipher Surgical, which has developed laparoscopic machine OpClear, and Zortel, a firm which has created a new security device for windows and doors.