Central Finance, an experienced and professional commercial finance company based in Birmingham has supported traditional signwriting and signage manufacturer HNS Signs, also in Birmingham to invest in state of the technology and recruit an additional apprentice and three other members of staff.
HNS Signs, one of the Midlands’ leading signage businesses took advantage of the current economy and business development opportunities and called on Central Finance to help finance their big ideas by accessing a package of finance including Governmental grants to invest in new technology, subsiding the cost of £50,000 employ and train an additional four staff and invest further in their current marketing activities.
Michelle Henry, managing director at HNS Signs says: “Thanks to Alison, Chris and Steve at Central Finance, our ideas to grow the business, employ more staff, improve our service offering, engage with bigger clients and bring more business to the Midlands can now be put into place.
“It’s very exciting to be a business owner right now, especially here in the Midlands where have so many opportunities to grow. For me, hiring more people, moving premises and growing our business is a significant achievement for us and it’s down to the commercial finance decisions we made.”
Alison Bradley, managing director at Central Finance adds: “Working with Michelle at HNS Signs to achieve their financial aims to grow their business, provide jobs to local people and attract new business has been both enjoyable and challenging.
“Even in a recovering and booming economy, commercial finance is a complex market and achieving a package of finance and grant funding for HNS Signs needed significant experience of grant application and fund sourcing to ensure that the finance package worked for the business.
“Grants are usually for a specific purpose, can be geographically bound, and are aimed at a specific size and types of organisations. They come from a variety of sources like, central government, regional and local government, the European Commission and various other national and local bodies. Some areas of the UK are favoured above others, and Birmingham and the West Midlands is currently achieving high success rates with many clients achieving grant funding.
“It is however, very important to find the right grant to suit your business and purpose, not all businesses will meet the criteria of certain grant types, including HNS Signs who receivedfunding through an ERDF programme administered by Birmingham City Council.”
Michelle continues: “Grants can be difficult to obtain and extremely time consuming, so for us we had to talk to specialists to take on the grant application from start to finish – which actually took just under a month using Central Finance.
HNS Signs are already seeing the rewards of their commercial financial decisions, investing in new machinery, namely a top of the range wide format printer and a CNC machine, which along with their skills, experience and new recruits has given them the resources to win national contracts, namely Bargain Booze and Wine Rack; a contract spanning 127 sites over a period of 12 months.