£9.5m fund launched in Manchester to boost exports

A £9.5m fund has been launched to help boost exporting and jobs in Greater Manchester.

According to Manchester Growth Company Chief Executive Mark Hughes, the Greater Manchester Export Fund will create and safeguard over 1,000 jobs.

Loans

Funding was secured by the Manchester Growth Company after it made a bid to the Regional Growth Fund. The funding will be delivered by Business Growth Hub, Business Finance Solutions, and UK Trade & Investment.

Business Finance Solutions will be managing £2.5m out of the £9.5m, which will be used to provide loans of up to £500,000 to enable businesses to secure export orders, whilst Business Growth Hub will manage £7m of the funding to provide grants for SMEs to boost export growth.

Hughes stated that he was “delighted” that the Manchester Growth Fund has been successful in securing £9.5m of Regional Growth Funding. It will be used to “provide an innovative approach to grant and loan finance for companies in Greater Manchester who wish to grow their business by gaining access to international markets.”

Transformation

He added that the fund will “transform the availability of growth funding and export finance to allow firms to achieve their potential, supporting the businesses on which Greater Manchester’s economic future rests.”

In addition to directly creating and safeguarding over 1,000 jobs, Hughes said that the scheme will help also help to “drive competitiveness, contributing to the UK target of achieving £1tn in exports by 2020.”

Greater Manchester Combined Authority lead on internationalisation and marketing Cllr Richard Farnell also commented on the fund, stating that it is designed to support the next generation of businesses who require extra investment in machinery, expertise or research to enable them to build or grow their export orders.