Expert View CLEARING THE PATH TO GROWTH by Amin Vepari
Business finance and scaleup lead, Lancashire County Council
The scaleup business community’s continued contribution to the Lancashire economy should not be understated.
Latest figures from the Scaleup Institute show Lancashire’s 675 scaleup businesses employ 58,000 people and have a combined revenue of £10bn.
In the two years since Two Zero was launched, our scaleup partnership has made huge progress in not only shining a light on the importance of this community of fast-growing companies, but also providing them with targeted high-quality support so they can continue to expand at pace.
There have been some brilliant success stories.
Rossendale-based Matrix247 has almost doubled its headcount and purchased another company to allow it to grow by
innovating after support from the Scaleup Resurgence programme.
There’s Atkinsons, a coffee roaster in Lancaster founded in 1837, which received targeted support to expand its online business as its shops and cafes were forced to close during lockdown and is now expanding at pace.
However, the Scaleup Institute’s Annual Scaleup Review highlights that there are still significant growth barriers for Lancashire scaleups, with finance and access to talent and markets being the top three.
Two Zero’s mission is to support the leaders of fast-growing Lancashire businesses and we’ll continue to work with them to overcome these barriers so they can deliver even greater returns to our county.
sells CBD through a range of oils, patches and CBD-infused skin creams.
Before lockdown, 75 per cent of the company’s business was through wholesale and selling directly to health food stores, with just a small proportion of sales online.
Local MP Sir Lindsay Hoyle with EnergyAce directors Eileen and Gary Vizard
“We were able to source cost effective components, made some modifications to how we manufactured, and developed a new product to market to these companies on the basis that it was British manufactured. That has been the main driver of our growth.”
Before Covid-19 hit, EnergyAce was growing turnover at around 20 per cent per year. After an initial slowdown during the early weeks of Covid, the company recovered to record 80 per cent turnover growth for the 2020-21 financial year.
There is a range of support available to help Lancashire businesses on their growth journey, as Alex Tofalos, owner of Garstang-based CBD One has found to his advantage.
With lockdown having had a massive impact on sales, he began working with Access to Finance (A2F) Lancashire to investigate ways of funding the business as it prepared to push sales online.
The business has developed a range of products that use CBD oil, a legal product derived from hemp, which is proving increasingly popular as a health and wellbeing supplement. The company
With orders dropping as the High Street was forced to close, Alex started to look at the web as a way of boosting sales. He had already started to look at selling online and directly to customers before Covid-19, and this research was soon to pay off.
He teamed up with a specialist advisor at A2F to work out the best way of funding a switch to online sales and was successful in pitching to Rosebud, a local authority funding programme targeted at county businesses, and in securing a loan.
That £75,000 ‘forecast-led’ funding, along with a government Bounce Back loan, gave the business fresh impetus and a way to fully develop its website and online strategy.
It led to a massive 400 per cent growth in online activity, and within 12 months CBD One had replaced the business it had lost at the start of lockdown with an 85 per growth in online sales.
The business was also referred to ‘Route into Retail’, a subsidised commercial scaleup programme run the county council, while also completing a ‘Preparing for Investment’ course with the University of Central Lancashire.
The substantial package of support has also allowed Alex to move ahead with the launch of two new products. He says: “It has been an incredibly difficult 18 months for so many companies but there is help out there if you’re prepared to look.”
LANCASHIREBUSINESSVIEW.CO.UK
SCALE TO
SALE
A high-impact commercial growth programme to help founders and owners of fast-growing Lancashire firms build revenue, develop their brand and plan their exit strategy while making their business attractive to investors and investees.
Application deadline: February 14
/ Two thirds funded by
Please scan the below QR code to find out more and register or visit
www.twozerolancs.com/ programmes/scaletosale
47
SCALING UP
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88
