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South West businesses benefit from £11m of loans in the past year including Wolf London

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 scheme has a 12-year legacy of delivering funding to businesses who may otherwise find it difficult to secure loans from traditional lenders. The programme 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

Gloucestershire business benefitting from financing

One of the businesses to benefit is Wolf London, a new men’s equestrian clothing brand based in the Cotswolds.

Andre Gardiner fell in love with horses at three years old and now aged 30, he has continued to enjoy eventing, show jumping competitively and looking after his two horses - Elvis and Berry. But throughout his time working and competing in the industry, Andre noticed that the products offered to men were increasingly difficult to obtain and find, especially at an affordable price.

What I saw was a restricted market for men, which had quite traditional types of clothing and hadn’t received the same level of investment as the female sector. Wolf London was subsequently born in 2022 as the culmination of a 15-year dream to tackle the gap in the men’s equestrian clothing market. I wanted to enhance the diversity of products on offer by combining designer fashion with equestrian wear, so they were suitable for the twenty-first century. Andre Gardiner Owner, Wolf London

The brand offers designer clothing in three ranges: classic, signature and timeless. The leading products on offer – the Alpa Breeches and Signature Hoodie – are being joined this summer by a blue and pink quarter zip jumper, designer jeans and two new designs of male summer breeches.

Andre received a Start Up Loan of £20,000 via Business Support Partner X-Forces Enterprise, as one of his parents served in the military. He used the funds to manufacture stock, build out a storeroom, commission photography and design signature shipping boxes to enhance the customer experience.

He continues to run Wolf London in his spare time, when he is not working as a project manager, helped by his partner and mum. He travels up and down the UK to sell his products at events and competitions, and this year he is planning to attend the Gloucestershire Festival of Polo and the Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials.

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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