ANOTHER three businesses will set about ambitious growth plans, after securing investment from a fund managed by St Helens Chamber.

Industrial equipment firm Indequip, which is based in Sutton Leach, Rainford-based company 2U Food and St Helens furnishing company Ena Shaw will all seek to recruit new employees, after receiving grants from the St Helens Jobs and Growth Fund.

It means seven businesses have so far benefitted from more than £200,000 of investment to help them expand since the fund launched last November.

As reported by the Star a fortnight ago, NW Metal Sections, Safeshred, Neticonic and Qualplas have also won grants.

The chamber estimates that funding released so far will stimulate 49 new jobs in the borough.

Geoff Bates, the chamber regional growth fund programme manager, said: “The quality of the applications being considered is very high and indicates that local businesses have the capacity to stimulate private sector investment that could be worth millions to the borough.”

Meanwhile, plenty more applications are being considered from firms keen to tap into the £2m cash pool, which is supported by the Government’s regional growth fund.

Confidential shredding firm SafeShred is creating three new jobs at its Haydock headquarters, thanks to a £10,000 grant.

The company, which was established four years ago, collects confidential documents and media from customers across the north west.

It transports papers securely to its shredding facility, where they are destroyed before being sent to be recycled into tissue paper products.

Growing demand for SafeShred’s services meant the business wanted to increase the volume of documents it could process.

Managing director Frank O’Hare said: “Investing in new machines gives us more scope to take on larger projects because our turnaround will be much quicker.

“As more and more companies become aware of their responsibility to dispose of data securely, the demand for our services is increasing and with this investment we are in a good position to continue growing.”

Two new employees have already joined the team and the next plan is to add another vehicle to its growing fleet and employ an additional driver.

Grants of up to £70,000 are available to businesses who want to create jobs. Applications are assessed by the fund’s investment panel.

Businesses can apply for grants of up to 20 per cent of their total project value and eligible projects should have a minimum value of £20,000.

For further information and to download an expression of interest form, visit sthelenschamber.

com/rgf, or call Geoff Bates on 01744 742087.