Lancashire firms offered £2.25m bounce back fund to get growing after the coronavirus lockdown

Lancashire County Council has unveiled the £2.25m Rosebud Rebound Fund to help businesses in the county to resume growth plans following the impact of the pandemic.

Managed by GC Business Finance, loans will be available from between £10k - £300k for businesses in Lancashire across all sectors.

The new fund sits as part of the £11.25m Rosebud Fund, which has been providing financial support to the region’s SMEs for more than 30 years. In the last 12 months alone, the fund has provided more than £2m to 16 businesses across Lancashire, creating more than 100 jobs as a result.

Transactions include a £300k loan provided to YUDU, a software company in Clitheroe specialising in digital publishing and crisis communications, to accelerate the growth of its flagship crisis management product Sentinel. The firm also recently provided a £160k loan to Boe House, of Thornton,a provider of gift hampers and boxes, for export growth.

With the government-backed loan schemes drawing to a close, businesses still need quick access to funding to stabilise and return to growth. As a result, the Rosebud Rebound Fund has streamlined its applications and approvals process to speed up the drawdown of capital on its loans up to £50k.

Matt Robinson, fund manager at Rosebud, said: “Short term access to cash has been a key consideration for SMEs across the UK, and lenders have stepped up to come up with innovative solutions to get funding to where it is needed quickly.

“Having worked with Lancashire businesses for more than 30 years through our flagship Rosebud Fund, we are immersed in the local community, and understand that Lancastrians are resilient and robust and they require funding to match their ambitions.

“We remain very much open for business, and we look forward to working closely with entrepreneurs to help the local economy rebound.”

County Councillor Michael Green said: “As we have seen, there have been a multitude of challenges facing companies as a result of the pandemic.

“One of these has been accessing the growth capital necessary to put them back on track for their scale-up trajectory, along with supporting new and emerging companies and industries.

“The pandemic has highlighted the further need for both the public and private sector to come together. Lancashire County Council, along with a host of our partners, continues to champion and drive not only our economic development recovery, but also invest in growth opportunities. It is therefore our collective responsibility to support these companies and assist them to reach their potential, despite ongoing uncertainty."