Hygiene Solutions grows - and grows again - after small capital grant

"The grant from Warwickshire County Council was a big help. It was a vital stepping stone for us."

In 2017, Hygiene Solutions, based in Nuneaton, accessed a Warwickshire County Council small capital grant to support their plan to expand.

The plan went well - so well that the business is now in the process of expanding again.

Set up by Tracey Jackson in her home town 21 years ago, Hygiene Solutions quickly built an excellent reputation for its work in specialist washroom services.

Over the years the workforce and client-list continued to grow, to a point where, two years ago, the business simply had to have more space. An immediate solution was to adapt part of their existing premises in Pool Road Industrial Estate to accommodate more stock.

That was when the company received the small capital grant - and that has led to continued growth and further recruitment with the business now moving to an even bigger HQ at Tungsten Park , close to the border of Hinckley and Nuneaton.

"In 2017 we reached the point where we had outgrown the space we had," said Trudi Colledge, business development manager at Hygiene Solutions. "If we were to continue to grow, we had to expand the premises so we looked at ways in which we could utilise more of the space on the site to give us a lot more storage, enabling us to keep a lot more stock.

"The grant from Warwickshire County Council was a big help. It was a vital stepping stone for us. At that time our margins were getting very tight but that expansion enabled us to keep growing to the point where we now have had to expand again. As a direct result of the grant we have taken on five staff and we are targeting further growth." 

The continuing growth of Hygiene Solutions is a great success story for the business and also for the town as Nuneaton expertise and enterprise means it is punching its weight globally. Alongside clients across the UK are customers in 16 countries worldwide, all serviced by the skills and entrepreneurial power of Nuneaton people.

"The business began and has grown in the town and, when we expanded two years ago, Tracey was very keen to keep it in Nuneaton," said Trudi, who attended George Eliot School before working as a  commercial account manager at Coventry City for seven years. "Now we have had to move a little bit out of town to find the space we now need but we are very proud of service we deliver and that it has always been 'Made in Nuneaton.'"

* The advice for the company was delivered as part of the Coventry and Warwickshire Business Support Programme, which is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Warwickshire County Council. 

• To find out more about the range of support available to grow your business, please contact the Growth Hub on 0300 060 3747.