Welcome from Monica Fogarty

Hello and welcome to the May edition of Warwickshire Means Business.

There aren't many editions of WMB that contains news from Chelsea Flower Show. This edition does with the lovely story of Leamington-based Sarah Horne’s award of a prestigious silver gilt at the Show last week. The award was earned by Sarah’s creativity, hard work and talent, of course, but let’s hear it too for the Small Capital Grant which enabled her to develop the stylish workshop in which she created her prize-winning exhibit.

Sarah says the grant was an “absolute game-changer” and I am so pleased that her business has joined more than 100 others to benefit from our Small Capital Grants scheme. 

Other very good news is the development of two major new industrial parks supported by the first loan (£9.7 million) from Warwickshire County Council’s Property Investment Fund (PIF). The PIF is the property strand of our Warwickshire Investment Fund which supports the provision of sites and premises designed to help grow the County economy.

In this edition we also hear how an ERDF Innovation Grant has spectacularly enhanced Lime’s excellent work with local authorities and the Police Service to support young people, and how award-winning small business Smallfry is benefiting from the “brilliant” impact of an apprentice.

We look back on a very successful Coventry & Warwickshire presence at UKREiiF where many important connections were made. We also look forward to an exciting business and skills event coming up in Coleshill. There is our regular round up of upcoming events and news-in-brief and, as always, all the articles in WMB have all the relevant links to get you straight to where you need to go for business and skills support. Please do get in touch if we can help you.