Growth hubs continue mission to drive success with 5,000 businesses supported

Latest year-end figures for 2024/25 showed  nearly 5,500 businesses received some form of support through the Marches Growth Hub network while more than 250 start-ups were also helped.

The Marches Growth Hub website – which was visited nearly 45,000 times during the year – is a one-stop shop for business support covering Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin, with business support on the ground delivered by the three councils through the Herefordshire Growth Hub, Shropshire Growth Hub and Invest Telford.

Highlights from the latest figures include 5,453 total business interactions across the region and  5,549 individuals supported. 

In addition 266 start-up businesses were offered support, 2,764 businesses attended events  and there were 44,992 visitors to the Marches Growth Hub website. 

Emma Chapman, manager of Shropshire Growth Hub who co-ordinates the figures, said the figures showed the strength of the business support service across the whole region.

“It is clear from the figures that the support being offered across the Marches region is hugely valuable and widely welcomed by our business community," Emma said.  “It does not matter what size or shape your business is or at what point you are on in your business journey, our teams will be able to offer advice, refer you to exactly the right funding or support programme and help you continue to thrive and prosper.

“It has been wonderful to hear the feedback from some of the thousands of people who have attended events across the region this year and to see how the work we do contributes to real success on the ground.”

Key themes for business support across the year included access to finance, moves to cut emissions and save energy, improving skills and training and adopting new digital technology to improve efficiency.

Among the businesses helped over the past 12 months are Telford-based My Workwear and Bridge Cheese, both of which received support from the Made Smarter West Midlands programme supported by the hub, and Opus Media Productions, from Condover, near Shrewsbury.

Stavros Kokkinos, of Opus, said the support and advice he was offered had been ‘instrumental’ in the business going from strength to strength in its first 12 months.

“The Shropshire Growth Hub has been a tremendous help and fundamental to the development of my business. I feel very privileged to have had all the support they have given me.

“It is amazing that so much help and support is available here and that so much of it is free. I speak to a lot of other business owners in the county and I know that they all feel the same.”

For more information about the Marches Growth Hub and the support available visit https://marchesgrowthhub.co.uk