29 October 2008

£10m High Growth Programme for the Northwest launched

The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and the Northwest ERDF Programme have today launched a new High Growth business support programme designed to help businesses in the region with ‘Starting a High Growth Business' and provide 'Coaching for High Growth’ that will support and grow the Northwest economy.

With the support and investment of the new ERDF programme, the NWDA aims to deliver the £10m programme to assist 1,000 High Growth, new and established businesses in the Northwest.  The funding consists of £3m ERDF and £7m NWDA.

The current difficult business environment presents new challenges for growing a business. Historically, only about a quarter of small businesses achieve growth in any given year with around 7% of new VAT registrations achieving high growth over an extended period. There are still opportunities for those businesses with the aspirations for significant growth and all businesses need to prepare to take advantage of the longer term upturn in markets.

Providing support is essential and this project will be targeted towards businesses from all sectors with high growth potential whether at pre-start, start-up or existing stage. In total around 1000 businesses will be supported by the programme which is expected to deliver over £250M additional GVA with a resulting 2000 additional jobs.

High growth companies are defined as either new businesses that have the scope to grow to £0.5m within 3 years or established SMEs that have the ambition and capability of achieving a minimum of 20% per annum growth.

The project aims to provide intense coaching and support to businesses in the Northwest that demonstrate this high growth potential.

Steven Broomhead, Chief Executive of the NWDA said: “There are significant challenges to be faced in the economy and the NWDA is introducing a range of measures to support all businesses.  With every challenge there are opportunities and the aim of this scheme is to focus solely on those companies that have the aspiration and drive to achieve significant growth. The targeted support from this new High Growth project will better prepare around 1,000 businesses to give the greatest return to the growth of the economy.”

David Malpass, Director of European Programme at NWDA, said: “In March 2000, the EU Heads of States and Governments agreed to help Europe to "become the most competitive and dynamic growth economy in the world”. Providing support, such as dedicated coaching, will help new businesses from all sectors with high growth potential to achieve their goals.”

Simon Caunt, Assistant Regional Director, CBI, said:  “Helping NW businesses with aspirations for significant growth is an essential part of the wider business support available in the region. The changing economic climate will present different challenges for small and medium enterprises over the next year and it is vital that government support is focused where it is needed most.  The help, support and guidance provided by coaching programmes such as this will enable these businesses to realise their potential and deliver sustained growth for the North West economy.”

The Northwest High Growth programme combines two ‘Solutions for Business’ products (‘Starting a High Growth Business' and 'Coaching for High Growth’) from within the Government’s recently announced national package of 30 publicly funded business support products.  ‘Solution for Business - funded by government’ helps companies start, survive and succeed and makes government support simpler for business reducing the number of support products from 3,000 by 2010. Access to the Northwest High-Growth programme is available from today via Business Link Northwest, the primary gateway for business support in the region.

Ends

Notes to Editors:
Winning Pitch plc of One Central Park, Manchester has been awarded the 3 year contract by the NWDA.

Winning Pitch plc was incorporated onto the PLUS market in June 2007.  They have developed to become a prominent provider of coaching services to high growth businesses. Over 500 high growth entrepreneurs have been supported in the North West through working with both public sector and industry groups to deliver coaching services.