CHAMBER NEWS
T-Shirt Guy’s Rob Booth (right) gives City Mayor Peter Soulsby a tour of the new equipment
Leicester SMEs are making the most of Collaborate funding
Leicester-based businesses are benefiting from a county-wide support project to help small to medium sized businesses grow. Over 50 firms across
Leicestershire have been granted a share of a £1.2m business growth fund as part of the European Union-funded Collaborate project, which launched last year and is part-managed by the Chamber. Leicester City Council led the
successful bid for £3.1m which, along with the capital grants scheme, offered a comprehensive business advice and inward investment service for small to medium-sized companies in the area. The business growth fund invited
businesses to apply for grants of £5,000 to £25,000 to meet up to one-third of the cost of planned investment. Two Leicester-based businesses
– The T-Shirt Guy and Bluefrog Design – are already beginning to see the benefits of their successful bids to the Collaborate business growth fund. Textiles business The T-Shirt Guy
has been trading from its Barkby Road base for nine years. It designs and sells printed t-shirts and other garments to major high street retailers including New Look, River Island, Topman and Topshop. As part of its growth plans, the company wanted to create a new
garment processing unit and bring the printing, embellishment, re- processing, labelling and packaging of its t-shirts in-house. The company successfully bid for
the full £25,000 available through the Collaborate fund to support its ambitious growth plans. This has enabled The T-Shirt Guy to take on new premises on Ulverscroft Road, invest in new equipment and helped to create 14 new jobs. Managing Director Rob Booth
said: “The Collaborate grant enabled us to quickly set up our new factory at a time when capacity in Leicester was restricted, so the speed of set up was critical for us. “We are proud to have created
14 new jobs in the new factory and hope to create 14 more in the year ahead by taking on re-processing work from other businesses.” Bluefrog Design, based close to
the city centre, was founded in 2003. The industrial design consultancy develops technology- led products for businesses in the medical, transportation, industrial and scientific markets. It successfully bid for a
Collaborate grant of £11,800 towards the cost of new equipment to expand and enhance its prototyping and batch production capabilities. As a result, the company is
predicting an increase in turnover of about 56%.
36 business network December 2018/January 2019
Bluefrog’s Chris Samwell (right) demos HUD to Peter Soulsby Founder and Managing Director
Chris Samwell said: “The Collaborate grant has helped us to invest in new equipment that will transform our prototyping process. “It has opened up opportunities
for us to grow our design and prototyping services, helping to secure existing jobs and allowing us to create a new role for a full-time prototype engineer.” Both companies showed how the support had helped their business
grow during a recent visit by City Mayor Peter Soulsby. “It’s been excellent to have the
chance to see first-hand how the Collaborate project is supporting innovative and forward-thinking businesses in Leicester,” said Mr Soulsby. “Both of these companies have shown how a relatively modest grant has helped them invest in growing their business and helped create new jobs in key local industries.”
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