By David Thomas, investment manager at NEL Fund Managers
One of the most satisfying parts of our work as business investors is witnessing the impact it has for North East companies who are able to realise their potential, create new jobs and scale up their operations to the next level.
The pre-eminent position that the scale-up concept has taken on the regional business agenda shows the importance of these ambitious businesses to the sustainable success of the North East economy. It’s our investment mission to help encourage more and more regional firms to join their growing number.
While they can operate in any sector, scale-up businesses have a common aim of increasing their revenues at a faster rate than they increase their operating costs.
First and foremost, they need to have a robust growth strategy in place which shows how the scale up objectives will be reached and what resources are required to get there.
Finding and keeping the right people should be central to this process, and as the plan is executed, so should maintaining a firm grip on the business’s cashflow and budgets.
In the North East LEP area alone, there are currently over 200 scale up businesses, employing 36,000 people and generating a combined turnover of £5bn – and we know there’s the capacity to increase these figures even further.
The newly-launched £18m North East Growth Capital Fund that we’re now managing, which offers business investments of up to £500,000, is specifically designed to feed this ambition.
We’re looking forward to being part of even more scale-up success stories in the future, and we are keen to hear from North East firms that are ready to scale up with our backing.
For more information about NEL’s investment criteria, visit www.nel.co.uk or contact the investment team on 0345 369 7007.