If your company has expansion in mind but you require further
guidance and support raising funds, why not call the Business Grants
Team on 0113 247 0000. Peter Black obtained an expansion grant to
fulfill his business ambitions and read on to see how he achieved this.
Pennine
Castings Ltd is based in Armley, and was established in 1902. The
company, then known as Blakey's, grew over the years to be taken over
by a much larger company in the early eighties. However, in 1989 this
company told the management team they were going to close Blakey's
down, so two of the management team took over the business through a
management buy-out. One of these, Peter Black, still owns the business.
At
the time of the management buy-out, the firm occupied the whole of the
site it is currently based on and employed 150 staff. Unfortunately two
years later, due to the downturn in the UK market, the company had to
make 133 redundancies and was forced to sell their premises and rent
back a corner plot to operate from. Fortunately the company has turned
around and has expanded back into some of the old site, managing to
purchase back the area it occupies and employment has risen to 34 full
time employees.
Peter decided to expand the business further
and earlier this year applied to Leeds City Council for an expansion
grant. He was granted £5,000 to assist with the purchase of new
machinery to replace the dated machinery in existence. The company
relies heavily on its furnaces run by power packs that were failing
them and in turn costing them up to £5,000 for every day that the
furnaces were out of action. The new control panel has allowed the
company to increase capacity, improve energy efficiency, and allow for
a potential rise in turnover due to lower costs and higher capacity.
Peter
Black is realistic about the market, saying: "We have to take on more
lower volume jobs since all the high volume jobs are going overseas to
places like China and India." Although the market is facing a downturn,
Leeds remains the UK's third largest manufacturing centre with
manufacturing accounting for 10% of the total employment within Leeds.
Pennine
Castings are not supported by a larger company and as such feel that
any assistance they get is critical to their future. "Leeds City
Council were very helpful and even assisted me with completing the
application forms" says Peter, "They were very understanding which
makes it less formal than it might have been and very reassuring for
me." Pennine Castings main goal for the future is to survive in an
uncertain market and with the help offered by Leeds City Council and
strong business support networks in the area, they have a very strong
chance of being able to minimise costs, increase profitability and
ultimately not only survive, but increase turnover.