Grants and Subsidies for Manufacturing Businesses

Last Updated: August 22, 2009

Grants and Subsidies

There are a number of schemes that could provide your business with some extra finance; only a limited number are available to new businesses, but if you are launching a new project rather than the business itself you are more likely to be eligible.

“Most grant and loan schemes are biased towards manufacturing businesses.”

Although the process of getting a grant or loan will be very tough, most schemes are biased towards manufacturing businesses, particularly those that will create jobs.

You will need to give details of a specific project that the funding is for; most grants cannot be used as general working capital. The majority of schemes work on a ‘matching’ basis, where the funding you can obtain is a maximum of 50% of the project cost.

If you have trouble getting a loan because of a lack of security, applying for the government Small Firms Loan Guarantee (SFLG) scheme could help you by providing 75% of the security for loans of up to £250,000 (£100,000 for business trading less than 2 years). In return for the security, you must pay the government Small Business Services department 2% of the outstanding loan each year.

The loans are applied for through one of the participating lenders, and they make the final decision. If your business is already established, you will only be eligible if your turnover is below £5million a year (£3million a year for non-manufacturing businesses).

You can search for a grant or scheme with the Business Support Directory available from the government’s Business Link site.

No matter which type of funding you use, you will be more likely to succeed if you can demonstrate your business has been well planned. The best way to do this is to create a well written and convincing business plan.