A company specialising in the supply of forklift batteries is predicting further growth as it reports turnover of more than £4 million thanks to support from Finance Yorkshire.
Industrial Battery and Charger Services Limited (IBCS), based in Rotherham, is the UK’s largest independent service provider for forklift batteries. It supplies batteries, chargers and service to the entire distribution chain, from original equipment manufacturers through forklift truck dealers to the end users.
A £120,000 Business Loan from Finance Yorkshire enabled the company to move from its original base in Darnall, Sheffield, to premises at Hellaby. The business has since moved again – to premises twice the size at the same location – to meet the growth in customer demand.
Jonathan Jones bought IBCS with Glynn Woon in 2001 and together with Sales Director Paul Hewson they employ more than 20 staff. Turnover has grown from £2.6m in 2012 to more than £4m in 2014.
Jonathan said: “The investment from Finance Yorkshire was crucial to our first move and then giving us the springboard to move again. We’re 40 per cent ahead of where we were last year and we are planning for strong growth in the next 12 to 18 months through new and existing customers.”
IBCS has seen significant growth in the hire of its forklift truck batteries and chargers where there is demand from companies moving large amounts of stock, particularly in peak seasons.
IBCS is also investing in training and development. “We are bringing apprentices through the business as well as investing in the development of our engineers,” said Jonathan. “We have got an excellent group of people and their customer service, the quality of our product and our modern warehouse allows us to operate more efficiently and achieve growth.”
Melanie Reynolds, Portfolio Executive at Finance Yorkshire, said: “IBCS is a great example of a company that has significantly grown as a result of investment from Finance Yorkshire. It is a well-established company which has shown consistent growth and profitability and has the ability to further cement its leading position in the UK market.”
To date, Finance Yorkshire has made 694 investments totalling £90 million.
It 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 £30m 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, £15m from UK Government and £45m match funding from the European Investment Bank.
