If you’re an SME based in Sheffield, you could be eligible for the Business Productivity and Digitisation Grant programme. The £1.75m funding pot for Sheffield businesses is derived from a sub-regional scheme that has received £5,199,593 from the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
The Shared Prosperity Fund provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK, investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills.
As part of the programme, businesses can apply for a grant to help them pay for changes that make their business more productive. This could mean saving time, space, energy, or materials, and all applicants will be allocated a specialist Productivity Advisor to work with them to develop their project and submit the application, so it couldn’t be easier.
There are two types of grants available to apply for: Productivity or Digital Innovation.
With a Digital Innovation Grant:
You can apply for a grant of between £2,500 and £5,000.
With a Productivity Grant:
You can apply for a grant of between £2,500 and £25,000.
In total, your project cannot cost more than £125,000.
Funds have already been awarded to 165 businesses, and there is a limited pot remaining.
Enquiries will only be taken until the fund is committed so don’t delay getting in touch to find out more – time is running out!
To hear more about how businesses benefited from the grant, we spoke to two very different Sheffield SMEs who’ve successfully applied for support.
OCPR
Can you start by giving me a brief explanation of your business?
OCPR is a full-service digital marketing agency offering a wide array of services tailored to help businesses succeed online. Our expertise includes web development, Google PPC, Social PPC, graphic design, brand design, email marketing, social media management, SEO and content creation.
Can you tell us what your productivity/digital challenge was?
We are working towards a strategic growth plan, along with extending our capabilities as an agency. Our four new starters needed new equipment, podcasting equipment was required to extend our offering as an agency, and machines needed updating to current market-leading technology to help with video editing. Outsourcing photography had also been a substantial cost.
What did you use the digital grant for and how much were you awarded?
We were issued a grant of £4,548.77, which was 50% of the purchase cost of professional video and podcasting equipment plus high specification MacBooks to support video editing software.
What has been the main impact of the grant, and what difference has it made to your business?
We have seen significant improvements in productivity, allowing new members of the team to work on top-spec machines. We have seen a big saving in photography, and we are now able to do a lot of content creation in-house, which has proved a real success. We are currently working on formats for podcasting, which I believe will bring a great deal of additional work and revenue to our business.
Can you detail any support you received from SCC through the application process?
We were passed onto a Productivity Advisor, who was a great help throughout the process.
Hencha
Who are you, what is your business called and what do you do?
I’m David Norman of Hencha Solutions Ltd. We are diverse metal fabrication specialists and supply to some of the biggest names in the retail, hospitality, and infrastructure industries. We undertake all parts of the process from design, through manufacture to final installation.
Can you give us details of your productivity/digital challenge and the impact the grant has made on your business?
Following a strategic review of the business, it was clear we had issues with our production that were causing us some key challenges, specifically in the laser cutting section of our production. The grant provided us with £12,500 towards the cost of a new laser cutting machine, which, without that support, we would have struggled to purchase in the timescales we needed to.
The key successes we have already realised or problems we have addressed include eliminating the cost of subcontracted laser cutting work for the foreseeable future. On top of that, the lack of control was significant, and jobs would occasionally go out late owing to snagging issues that had to be rectified. Since installation, not one job has left late, and in fact, we are now quoting shorter lead times.
Productivity has risen significantly owing to less time preparing jobs to go out for laser cutting, managing that process and fixing issues.
In terms of flexibility, we are now able to create better solutions than anticipated owing to the experimental work we can undertake with the laser cutter, creating parts that we didn’t think were possible, which in turn has upped our product/service offering.
Regarding our profit margins, the full extent of the increased profitability hasn’t yet been realised, but we believe at least 2.5% has been added to the bottom line.
Please share your experience of working with Business Sheffield and the Productivity Advisors, and the support you received.
The service we have received throughout the process has been first-class. From the initial engagement with the Business Sheffield advisor, who helped us understand the programme and the impact the grant could have; through supporting us with the application to ensure an optimum chance of success with the grant; to the claims team to enable us to receive the funding, the whole journey has been amazing, and I would strongly recommend other manufacturing businesses to engage with Business Sheffield.
Head to the council website at www.sheffield.gov.uk/productivity-grant, call 0114 224 5000 or email businesssheffield@sheffield.gov.uk.
