Businesses across Tyneside are being urged to come forward with their growth projects as The Growth Fund and North of Tyne Growth Fund approach their completion.

The 拢3.5m funds are each designed to support small to medium-sized businesses with grants from 拢20,000 to 拢250,000 for capital investment with a project spend of at least 拢67,000. All projects must be completed and claimed by June 2023, so businesses need to act now to take up this opportunity.

The Growth Fund (TGF) is for businesses in Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland while the North of Tyne Growth Fund (NTGF) is for businesses in Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland and are both part funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

The aim of these funds is to boost the local economy through more productivity, innovation and jobs. So far, almost 拢5.5m has been approved for 42 grants across the two programmes.

The support has enabled local businesses to move premises, extend buildings, and more fully resource factories with equipment and people to boost their activity and growth.

Transmission Dynamics has been supported to build a new hybrid office, warehouse and engineering facility to accommodate its expanding team and realise its growth potential, with 50 new jobs on the horizon.

Jarek Rosinski, CEO of Transmission Dynamics said: 鈥淥ur adviser really believed in our case, taking a genuine interest in our business. He made the process very painless and wanted to help.鈥

iPac had an ambitious new iCard product, which required new machinery, tooling, ancillary equipment, staffing and a fully integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to address the added complexity of the product and start full-scale production.

Jonny Catto, managing director of iPac said: 鈥淏ecause it鈥檚 a new project, it鈥檚 quite innovative and different for us, and there鈥檚 an element of risk with it. I don鈥檛 think we would have quite had the confidence to push the button on this without having that risk mitigated.鈥

Mike Baker, senior project manager of both funds, said: 鈥淭hese projects wouldn鈥檛 have gone ahead at the scale or in the timeframe they have without the programme鈥檚 support.

鈥淭he funding has given companies the confidence to take the leap and invest in their business, knowing that some of the risk is offset or a funding gap is bridged.

鈥淎nd the long-term promise of these projects is huge 鈥 they have given companies more space to grow into, more kit to boost productivity, and more skilled people. All these things build the capacity that they need to deliver more products and services, win bigger contracts, widen their markets, or compete with international suppliers.鈥

If you want to join these businesses in building the region鈥檚 future prosperity, then don鈥檛 miss this opportunity to access the support and funding you need to realise your ambitions.