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South West businesses benefit from £11m of loans in the past year including BKW Crossfit

Press release 22 July 2024

Start Up Loans, part of the British Business Bank, today announced that it has delivered more than £11 million of loans to businesses in the South West in the past financial year (2023-2024).

The programme has a 12-year legacy of delivering funding to businesses who may otherwise find it difficult to secure loans from traditional lenders. Start Up Loans through its partnerships also offers mentoring to recipients in their first year. Since its inception in 2012, the programme has supported over 9,000 businesses through £90 million in loans in the South West.

In the past financial year alone (2023-2024), over £11 million has been lent to 874 businesses via the Bank’s appointed Business Support Partners, which is primarily SWIG Finance in the South West. Spread across the region, the diverse range of businesses includes an animal therapist, mobile cocktail bar, baker, green builder, photographer, sewing café and ceramics studio.

We're delighted that the Start Up Loans programme continues to have such a hugely positive impact on entrepreneurs across the South West, helping hundreds of small businesses in the past year. Hitting £11 million is a huge milestone and highlights the success of our efforts to boost access to finance across the region Richard Bearman Manging Director, Small Business Lending, British Business Bank

Bristol business benefitting from financing

One of the businesses to benefit is BKW CrossFit, a new community-based gym in East Bristol, set up by group of four friends.

The group - Adam Facey, his partner Raquel Sanjurjo Doval, and friends Holly Hawkins and Hayden Cotton – came together in 2022 after meeting at the gym and bonding over their mutual love of fitness. They all believed they could build upon the community aspect of CrossFit and acquire a space that allowed for socialising after training. In 2023, the friends took the plunge and each took out a Start Up Loan, amounting to £60,000 between them, via British Business Bank delivery partner BizBritain.

The gym opened in March 2024 and its key focus is to create a strong sense of community with a family-oriented feel. Thanks to the finance they received, they were able to secure a unit with a mezzanine level which could be used as a place for people to meet fellow gym users. They kitted out the space with a children’s area, TVs, sofas, and free coffee. This means that at BKW CrossFit, parents don’t need to leave their children behind when working out.

The team are continuing to focus on breaking down barriers to fitness by hosting mum and baby classes as well as social events in which children can take part, like Easter Egg hunts, with food and music around classes. They are also hosting classes specifically aimed at children from ages six to 10 and 11 to 16.

Securing this finance has meant everything to us. We wanted a trusted loan provider that looked at the business plan, not just at the potential profit behind it. It’s given us the opportunity to purchase all of the equipment instead of renting it and to be able to secure a big unit in the location we wanted. Adam Facey Co-owner, BKW CrossFit

To find out more about BKW CrossFit, visit: https://bkwcrossfit.com/

The Start Up Loans programme helps people start or grow their business and is part of the government-owned British Business Bank’s remit to make finance markets work better for smaller businesses. They can borrow up to £25,000 at a fixed interest rate of 6% per annum and repay the loan over one to five years. The programme also provides 12 months of free business mentoring.

Further Information

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Notes to editors

About Start Up Loans

The Start Up Loans programme provides personal loans for business purposes of up to £25,000 at a 6% fixed interest rate per annum and offers free dedicated mentoring and support to each business.

The primary aim of the Start Up Loans programme is to ensure that viable start-ups and early-stage businesses have access to the finance and support they need in order to thrive. A network of Business Support Partner organisations supports applicants in all regions and industries throughout the UK. The Start Up Loans programme is not designed to generate a commercial profit. Capital payments together with the interest are recycled to help meet borrowers’ increasing demands for finance.

Free guides on a range of subjects related to starting a business and recent media press releases are available on the Start Up Loans website.

The funding for the Start Up Loans programme is provided by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). A development bank wholly government-owned by DBT, the British Business Bank plc is not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The British Business Bank and its subsidiary entities are not banking institutions and do not operate as such.

The British Business Bank makes finance markets for smaller businesses work better, helping the sector to prosper, to grow and to build economic activity.

Key Statistics

  • Since its inception in 2012, the Start Up Loans scheme has delivered over 105,000 loans, providing more than £1bn of funding.
  • In the financial year 2022/23, the scheme provided 9,549 loans with a total value of approximately £120m.
  • The economic benefits of the Start Up Loans programme are almost six (5.7) times its economic costs.
  • At Spending Review 2021, the Chancellor announced resources to provide 33,000 Start Up Loans over next three years.

Aside from the return-on-investment numbers these statistics are gross estimates and based on Start Up Loans CRM along with externally commissioned research undertaken by SQW Ltd, with support from BMG Research.

Since 2012, 31% of loans went to people formerly unemployed or economically inactive. 40% of loan recipients were women and 20% were from ethnic minority groups (not including white minorities).

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