Lancashire Rosebud Finance – which provides growth funding for businesses in the county – helped to create over 40 jobs in the year to the end of March 2018.
Rosebud provided loans totalling almost £1.3m to six Lancashire businesses during the year to support their expansion plans, which in turn helped them to raise a further £590,000 in finance from other sources. The figures come from Mercia Fund Managers, which manages Rosebud on behalf of Lancashire County Developments Limited (LCDL) – the economic development arm of Lancashire County Council.
The companies include Lancashire Waste Recycling in Fleetwood, which is investing the money in new plant to enable it to become the first in the UK to manufacture solid renewable fuel pellets, which are increasingly being used to replace coal in heavy industry. The project will create 15 new jobs.
True Bearing Chartered Financial Planners, which is based in Euxton and is one of the North’s leading firms of Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs), has secured funding to invest in new technology and create six new jobs. Rosebud Finance will allow RCS Doors in Rawtenstall, which supplies roller shutters and garage doors, to double the floorspace at its factory, creating four new jobs, while Leyland-based QiSOFT, whose quality management software is used by blue-chip customers worldwide, will use the funds to develop new mobile applications and next-generation software.
Peter Rooney, Investment Manager at Mercia Fund Managers, said:
“Rosebud Finance remains an important tool to support business growth and job creation throughout Lancashire, especially for those firms that are struggling to obtain finance from the banks. In some cases, securing Rosebud Finance can help unlock finance from other sources or it can be used to invest alongside other public funds such as the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund, allowing companies to access even greater sums to support their expansion plans.”
County Councillor Michael Green, Cabinet member for economic development, environment and planning, said: “This is exactly the purpose of Rosebud. It shows the breadth and depth of companies we’ve supported in the past year including manufacturers, financial services, a company producing specialized software for industry, and other sectors.
“Rosebud has created and supported high-quality skilled jobs in the county, which creates an uplift in the Lancashire economy. Many of these companies are also exporting across the world, which show the quality of their work, their products and services.”
