Lancaster business targets spotless future with grant funding

A Lancaster-based cleanroom provider is the latest business to benefit from a Lancashire Business Growth Fund grant.

The award-winning Connect2Cleanrooms has received a five-figure grant to support its growth plans. 

Established in 2002, the business, which has its head office in Halton, supplies cleanrooms - facilities which are typically used in manufacturing or scientific research, with a low level of environmental pollutants such as dust, airborne microbes, aerosol particles, and chemical vapours. 

It supplies firms in the manufacturing, electronics, pharmaceuticals, laboratory, healthcare and energy industries all over the world. 

And its work goes across the whole cleanroom process from design to installation, providing clients with bespoke facilities which meet their particular needs and requirements. 

The £31,346 from the Lancashire Business Growth Fund will be used to buy management software and hardware to help the company automate some of its processes.

In addition, a further six jobs are to be created with the company’s total investment coming in at £156,733. 

The move follows continued growth for the business, which doubled its workforce in 2015 – with 45 people now on the payroll. 

Connect2Cleanrooms’ marketing manager, Sean Fryers, said: “We’ve enjoyed some rapid, rapid growth but the building blocks have now been put in place and these are exciting times. 

“What we’re doing now is putting the system in place and the six new people coming in are going to help us grow this business even more. 

“We want to automate a lot of the processes; the system is going to be fully integrated with the website and it’s a CRM (customer relationship management) system as well. 

“Every touchpoint a customer has goes through that system; for example, an order can go through from the CRM which will let the warehouse know to dispatch the order or the accounts department to process some paperwork. 

“As systems grow there tends to be duplication with people not speaking to each other but this is going to be seamless, building and consolidating on the good work that’s been done before.” 

Although the head office is based in Lancaster, the company boasts a regional office in Towcester as well as a German presence. 

An estimated 60 per cent of its work is done within the UK, it has cleanrooms across Europe and further afield, including North America, South America and Africa. 

Jeni Thomas, the company’s content marketing executive, added: “This system has let us put everything in place to help us achieve our growth plans. 

“These plans are global and are to help us continue to be the sector’s market leaders. We feel we are the market leaders because the service that we offer is not just about the cleanrooms, it’s the whole process. 

“There is the ongoing maintenance, the MOT and the training that we offer to the customer because all of that is how we will progress and meet our international targets. 

“We launched the first cleanroom app in the App Store; we are delivering innovative solutions for our customer base. We want to work with our customers and find the best possible solutions. 

“This donation will help us grow further and gear us up for the next stage in our development.” 

The company’s efforts have been rewarded externally. It was a two-time winner at the Be Inspired Business Awards (BIBAs) in 2014 and has also triumphed at the Red Rose Awards.

About the Lancashire Business Growth Fund

The Regional Growth Fund-supported Lancashire Business Growth Fund is a programme offering capital investment grants and international trade support to businesses across the county.

The programme has been launched by the county’s two accredited chambers of commerce – East Lancashire and North and Western Lancashire – in partnership with Regenerate Pennine Lancashire, and is intended to create 600 new jobs and safeguard a further 200. 

Its key aim is to accelerate the creation of sustainable jobs by encouraging companies to bring forward growth projects on a bigger scale with a larger impact at a time when those jobs are most needed. 

Businesses bidding for grants from the scheme can claim up to 20 per cent of the total project costs, with the remaining costs leveraged from the bank or investment. 

To be eligible for the programme, projects must involve the acquisition of new premises, infrastructure, machinery, expansion, or another suitable form of capital investment. 

Businesses are also required to demonstrate how many jobs will be created through the project in order to be accepted on to the scheme. 

For more information, contact Stephanie Warrington, East Lancashire Chamber of Commerce, at s.warrington@chamberelancs.co.uk or 01254 356473