‘Hedge’ funding supports growth for garden and landscaping firm

A landscaping and garden supplies company with roots in Sheffield for more than 30 years is looking to grow its workforce and branch out further into new areas thanks to funding from Finance Yorkshire.

Charlton Brook, which offers a full range of landscaping services largely for the commercial sector including housing developers such as Persimmon Homes, Kier Homes and Strata Homes, is using the funding injection to boost working capital in the face of the recent economic downturn.

The business, established in 1978 by a father and uncle team, has been kept in the family ever since with Andrew Morton and brother Michael taking over as directors following their father’s retirement.

Now the next generation team is looking to build on the foundations of the family business after receiving a business loan of £56,000 from Finance Yorkshire.

Andrew said: “Like many companies, we were affected by the recession and wanted to inject some cashflow into the business so our accountant Peter Hollis of Hollis Chartered Accountants suggested we look at what Finance Yorkshire could offer.

“The funding will help us to purchase vehicles and increase staff levels. As our business is seasonal and workload can vary considerably, we will look to take on staff through agencies, but this is still good news as it means we are nevertheless creating new roles for local people.

“The Finance Yorkshire money, combined with indications that the market is picking up, means we now have more confidence to do so, as well as further increase our plant stock production.

“It is extremely encouraging that our turnover is steadily increasing, resulting in further job creation, improved cash-flow and profitability. It is also encouraging to see our domestic customer base increasing, as well as demand for our new landscape design services.”

Finance Yorkshire Investment Manager Ian Howson said: “Charlton Brook are not alone – many of the region’s businesses are still feeling the impact of the recession so this funding will be a welcome boost, giving them working capital to get them back up to pre-recession trading capacity levels.”

Finance Yorkshire 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 £30million 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, £15million from Yorkshire Forward’s Single Programme, and £45million match funding from the European Investment Bank.

For more information about Finance Yorkshire, please visit www.finance-yorkshire.com or ring 0845 649 0000.

Note: this news article is from Finance Yorkshire’s previous fund. Read more about Finance Yorkshire