Grants give businesses a boost

Liz White, Proprietor of Littleborough Gallery

Grants totalling £65,000 have been awarded to more than 35 companies across the borough.

Success stories from the grants, provided by Rochdale Council, include Littleborough Gallery, GJD Manufacturing in Heywood and Adelaide Engineering, also in Heywood.

GJD Manufacturing, on Whittle Lane, manufacture outdoor electronic security detectors, CCTV and security light controllers. They were awarded a grant of £2,000 to research and develop a Mini Nas new product in order to showcase it at the IFSEC trade show in May this year.

Mark Tibbenham, Managing Director, said: “Getting this grant was fantastic.

“It meant we could move forward with developing the GJD Nas product which has proved to be a real success.

“As a result we were delighted to be finalists at the IFSEC 2011 Security Industry Awards and the new GJD Nas product was nominated in the CCTV System of the Year Category.

“We were also pleased to announce our recent partnership with the American company Iluminar Inc.

“This will help develop sales in the USA and add further growth and employment locally.”

Littleborough Gallery, which specialises in the sale of original, contemporary art, used its grant to improve the marketing of the venue.

Liz White, the Gallery’s Proprietor, said: “We used the grant to upgrade our website and we’re delighted with the results.

“We are getting more sales than ever and the number of visitors to the site has increased substantially.

“We also used it to have a video made of me painting which is now on YouTube.

“This has also increased the traffic to the site.

“It has been a great boost and we’re going to continue to develop the site now we know demand is out there.

“Getting the grant made us think about increasing our use of the internet and it has had a very positive effect on the business.”

Adelaide Engineering specialises in large and heavy CNC machining solutions. Based on Aspinall Street in Heywood it was awarded £2,000 which enabled the firm to deliver CNC training on Cimco and hiendenhain milling, upskilling six people. The firm is also looking to employ four new people in the near future.

Owen Sharples, General Manager, said: “It has been brilliant. We’ve been able to do so much more as a result of getting the grant and we are planning to create new jobs too.”

To bid for the grants companies were asked to develop an action plan outlining what the money would be used for and how it would benefit their business. Once the plan had been agreed with a recognised business adviser, such as Business Link or Groundwork Oldham and Rochdale, they could submit their application.

Councillor Peter Williams, the council’s Cabinet Member for Corporate Management and Economic Regeneration, said: “I’m delighted that the grants, which averaged around £2,000 each, have helped businesses achieve so much. It shows what can be done working in partnership.

“Comparatively little money has really helped these businesses move on and focus on what they need to do to be even more successful.

“Businesses are still operating in a really challenging environment so it’s vital that we help them as much as possible.”