The first company to benefit from a new business rate rebate scheme at the Solent Enterprise Zone at Daedalus has set up business on the site.
Sapphire Aviation, which specialises in aircraft management and handling, has moved into three hangars at the former HMS Daedalus airfield in Lee-on-the-Solent.
In doing so, it has become the first company to benefit from Fareham and Gosport Borough Councils’ business rate rebate scheme, which gives businesses significant reductions on business rates of up to £275,000 over five years.
Sapphire Aviation, a start-up firm, will invest the money it saves in improving infrastructure and creating new jobs on the site.
Managing Director, Steve Ford, said: “We are very much poised for growth, which played a big part in our decision to set up at The Solent Enterprise Zone. We looked at a number of sites but this was the only one that gave us the potential we needed for substantial growth, in addition to the security and confidence for the long term.
“As well as spending the money that would have gone into the rates system on the infrastructure on the airfield, the saving will allow us to invest in our future and play an important role in the regional business landscape. We’re very much in this for the long term and while we hope to create around 20 new jobs in the first instance, we have the potential to create hundreds of jobs in the future as we grow. The nature of what we do means we’ll be engaging the services of other local businesses and contractors, creating a knock-on effect that could play an important part in the economic development of Lee-on-the-Solent and the wider area.”
Mr Ford’s aspirations for the company support the Enterprise Zone’s aim to boost employment and become a hub for advanced engineering and manufacturing using technologies drawn from defence, marine, aerospace and the aviation industries.
Executive Leader of Fareham Borough Council and Chairman of the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire (PUSH), Councillor Seán Woodward, said: “Both Fareham Borough Council and PUSH are very pleased to be welcoming Sapphire Aviation to the Fareham area, and it is hoped that other specialist companies will be encouraged to join them at this ideal site. The fact that new jobs and opportunities will be created is extremely pleasing.”
Gary Jeffries, director of the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), which is responsible for delivering the Enterprise Zone, added: “The moving of Sapphire Aviation onto the site is a real milestone for the project, which aims to create around 3,500 jobs on the Enterprise Zone by 2026. The company is a great representation of the kind of businesses we are talking to about moving to the site – forward-thinking, technologically advanced and poised for growth.”
Peter Cusdin, Development Director at the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), which owns much of the site, added: “The airfield is attracting the interest of successful aerospace companies, as proven by the addition of Sapphire Aviation to the site. We worked closely with the company to put in place a bespoke property package that met their existing and future business requirements.”
