Seeds of Yellow Panther's success sown at 1 Mill Street

“The council has been great...very supportive and flexible and always quick to respond…really refreshing to deal with.”

A digital studio in Leamington Spa has grown from six employees to 35 in two years and is moving to the next level after harnessing local business support.

Yellow Panther began its journey at co-working space 1 Mill Street where it spent two happy and productive years before moving to a larger base in Waterloo Street.

Its growth continues. In August it will launch a new product, Push and Pull, on to the market and integral to its development has been a Digital Creative Recovery Co-Investment Fund grant from Warwickshire County Council.

The Digital Creative Recovery Co-Investment Fund was part of a package of measures delivered by the Council to support economic recovery following the pandemic. In the case of Yellow Panther, the grant was the catalyst for an enterprising small business to take another step forward.

The match funded £30,000 grant went towards software designed to get the new product out to the market.

“The grant has helped us massively at a really important time,” said Yellow Panther co-founder Stuart Cope. “We have spent 18 months building an exciting new platform called Push and Pull but we also have 25 current clients to serve so we are very busy. So the grant eased the pressure a lot.

“We invested the money in two full-time roles and one part-time role to create the marketing materials around the new product, ready to launch in August.

“The council has been great. The process of getting the grant was really smooth. Stacy O’Connor and Louisa Smith from the County Council have really helped us. They were very supportive and flexible and always quick to respond…really refreshing to deal with.”

The rise of Yellow Panther, which has offices in Manchester and India as well as Leamington, adds another dimension to the powerful digital offer of Warwick district and a big factor behind the business’s progress was its home in its formative years at co-working space 1 Mill Street.

“We started our journey at 1 Mill Street and it gave us the perfect start,” said Stuart. “We moved in four weeks after it opened and only moved out at the end of 2022 because we needed a bigger space. We loved working there.

“It really helped us scale. We won four contracts from other businesses in the building and worked with Ben Foster who we still work with today. Securing four clients in six months just by being in that building gave us a great Return on Investment.

“It’s just a really nice environment, a cool place to work where you build good relationships with other businesses and the staff. At 1 Mill Street you can just drop them an email and they’ll drop into the office for a coffee and you can catch up about the business in hand but also events going on in the area. It’s brilliant on every level.”

Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Economy & Place, Cllr Martin Watson, said: “Yellow Panther is a great example of the sort of vibrant, creative small business which makes the Warwickshire offer and the local economy so strong.

“I am delighted that out Digital Creative Recovery Co-Investment Fund grant has proved of such value to them and enabled them to push forward and recruit. I am sure they will continue to go from strength to strength.”

* To find out what other support is available to your business, please call CWGrowth Hub on 0300 060 3747