A company specialising in bridges and highway maintenance is expanding and creating jobs with the backing of a £200,000 investment from Finance Yorkshire.
Route One Highways, based in Featherstone, employs 40 people and has contracts with the Highways Agency and major blue chip construction companies.
The business – founded by Matthew Pert and Gary Credland – is forecasting an increase in turnover this year, from £3m to up to £6m.
Route One Highways specialises in major bridge and highway maintenance with the majority of its work in the bridges and structures sector. Types of repair and replacement include bridge deck preparation, structural waterproofing and bridge expansion joints.
Route One Highways has benefitted from two previous rounds of investment from Finance Yorkshire. The latest investment of £200,000 is being used to purchase specialist plant wagons used to install bridge expansion joints and other specialist plant required for the installation of structural waterproofing systems.
Director Matthew Pert said: “The investment will also allow us to further extend our offices as we take on more staff. We have employed six more people recently and expect to take on more. Finance Yorkshire has been excellent to us, supporting us over the last four years as we have grown the business.”
Route One Highways holds single supplier status in a number of long term Highways Agency contracts across the UK making it the market leader for this kind of specialist work.
Finance Yorkshire Investment Manager Jonathan Craig said: “Route One Highways has grown to become a very successful business with a strong reputation across the UK. It is pleasing to support its ambitions to expand further and in particular, the creation of jobs in the Yorkshire region.”
To date, Finance Yorkshire has made 624 investments totalling over £77 million.
Finance Yorkshire provides seedcorn, loan and equity linked investments, ranging from £15,000 to £2m to help a range of small and medium sized businesses to meet their funding requirements for growth and development.
The project is supported financially by the European Union. It has attracted £30million investment from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of Europe’s support for the region’s economic development through the Yorkshire and Humber ERDF Programme, £15million from UK Government and £45million match funding from the European Investment Bank.
