A specialist drainage firm has secured funding of £250,000 to accelerate expansion including the creation of 15 jobs.
Team Valley-based Green Spark Utility Services says it wants to significantly build turnover in the next four years following the injection of cash from the North East Growth Capital Fund Loan Fund. The Tyneside firm has developed patented 'Typhoon' pipe-cleaning technology, and after working with regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers, and now hopes to land more and larger clients.
Following a management buyout in 2019, the firm is already working with established clients such as Northumbrian Water, Esh Construction and Drax Power. Now, it is focussing attention outside of the region, including looking for work with local authorities, and is assessing a potential future break into the US market.
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Chris Harrison, director at Green Spark Utility Services, says: "Businesses managing heavy industrial operations, such as petro-chemical plants, construction sites and factories, needs to stay well ahead of their environment and regulatory responsibilities.
"The technology we’ve developed and services we offer allow us to quickly resolve environmental and drainage problems on such sites and put strategies in place for ensuring that they don’t arise in the first place. We set ourselves apart by the outstanding levels of service we provide, our absolute commitment to safety standards and the practical knowledge of our expert team, and we’ve seen the business performing strongly over the last three years as a result.
“Bringing in these extra resources will allow us to target the larger commercial opportunities we know are out there and we’re confident that the ambitious growth targets we’ve set ourselves are very much in reach. The local knowledge and job creation ambitions of the NEL team were an important part of the investment process. They made it clear that they wanted to work with us and were very engaged right from the start.”
The North East Growth Capital Fund has been designed to create around 790 jobs in more than 70 regional firms over its lifetime and is part of the wider £120m North East Fund. Jane Siddle, senior investment executive at NEL Fund Managers, adds: "The Green Spark management team has already built an impressive operation, and now has the resources required to match their ambition to do much, much more with it."
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