Future Industry

Future Industry ERDF Objective 2 (Closed Project)

Future Industry ERDF Objective 2 — Helped through hands-on support and specialist assistance for existing and new companies, through 1:1 mentoring, feasibility studies, business workshops and incubator / technology provision. Specialist areas covered included: design, production, sales and marketing, and finance / funding, as well as general areas such as negotiating skills and time management etc, for the period October 2002 to June 2008.

Final statistics of required outputs are shown on the table below:

There were 101 assisted companies, unfortunately due to the nature of working with start-up businesses ( a high proportion of those enrolled) some companies closed in the 1st year. Time was also spent on the project with pre-starts that could not be enrolled until trading commenced or otherwise decided against setting up their own business after receiving valuable advice from the project. The project was not about birth rates but sustainability, so a potential company that does not set up because it finds out that it is not suitable ensures that these individuals do not get into financial difficulty etc.