Specialists join Sheffield City Region Growth Hub
Sheffield City Region (SCR) Growth Hub has appointed eight business growth specialists with more than 200 years of combined experience from sectors – ranging from creative industries and healthcare technologies to aerospace and rail.
The new service, which has core funding of £4.82m, is designed to be a single point of contact for all businesses across nine local authority areas – including Chesterfield – to access specialist support in key areas, whether that is from one of the eight specialists or from a partner organisation.
The partners include successful companies, consultancies, universities, chambers of commerce and local authorities, and national provision such as Innovate UK and UK Trade and Investment.
Head of the SCR Growth Hub, David Grimes, said: “It’s great to have these eight excellent business people ready and in place to help businesses far and wide to develop and expand. The eight business growth specialists all have different sectoral experience and can go in and help businesses from the word go.
“Everything is coming together for the Growth Hub and we can now start getting some results from businesses. I have great confidence that the people in place are going to be a huge part of that and they can impart their wisdom that they’ve accumulated over the years across the region.”
The Growth Hub offers support across the nine local authorities of Barnsley, Bassetlaw, Bolsover, Chesterfield, Derbyshire Dales, Doncaster, North East Derbyshire, Rotherham and Sheffield.
The team of eight, appointed because of their backgrounds in a variety of different industries, have knowledge in areas including business planning, culture change, start-up support, leadership and management, and product innovation.
One of the business growth specialists, Antony Davies, has almost 20 years’ experience in business support, and has been managing director, director and co-owner of a successful innovation and enterprise support consultancy business. He has worked as far afield as Russia and Japan and has business experience in both retail and logistics.
Antony said: “It’s great to be given this chance to help businesses small and large to grow and expand. As individuals we all have differing strengths, but together we make a specialist team that is designed to be able to help any business across the region whether that be a brand new start-up or an established company.”
The Sheffield City Region Growth Hub aims to simplify all regional and national support that is available to businesses. It can offer support and advice in innovation, start-up, exporting, skills training, access to finance and growth demand. The Growth Hub can be contacted via telephone or email.
The Growth Hub can be contacted on 03330 00 00 39, emailing growthhub@sheffieldcityregion.org.uk or visiting www.scrgrowthhub.co.uk.
Image shows six of the business growth specialists with head of Sheffield City Region Growth Hub David Grimes (front and centre). From left to right; Andy Sorsby, Tim Binns, David Grimes (Head of Sheffield City Region Growth Hub), Jim Goodare, Jim Scott, Jo Flanagan and Antony Davies. Not pictured in the photograph are Marcus Pearson and Robin Watson.
