OxLEP encouraging local businesses to dream big as it launches campaign

By Giles Gwinnett

6 December 2023

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The Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP) has launched a campaign to help local businesses achieve their growth goals.

Companies can access the 'OxLEP Business Super League' by first completing a six minute business support tool, which leads to a range of potential support, including a tailored business support action plan, workshops, mentoring and networking events.

Family business Darcica Logistics is one company, which, wanting to scale up, used the tool and has spent the last two years discovering its business superpowers.

It has 20 years’ experience and is committed to creating a more sustainable logistics industry across Oxfordshire and beyond.

Through the OxLEP business investment fund programme, which closed at the end of March this year, Darcica Logistics were awarded funding for their 'Greening Logistics' project.

This enabled the firm to purchase a pallet wrap machine to improve efficiency and productivity, whilst reducing carbon impact.

As part of the funding, it also received one-to-one support from an innovation advisor who helped the company to focus on building its business vision for the next five years.

The company also joined the eScalate programme, which included the 'Women in Business' event. This programme has now closed due to the end of European funding.

With support from OxLEP Business, Darcica Logistics has seen significant growth. Since 2020, the company has grown from a team of two to create 25 new full-time positions for local people in Oxfordshire.

And Darcica Logistics is always taking on new local and sustainable businesses as customers and hopes to support them with their sustainability journeys.

Its impact was also recognised at OxLEP’s business celebration event in June 2023, where Darcica was awarded 'Most impactful new product or service organisation'.

Launched in 2011, The Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership (OxLEP) champions the county's economic potential and acts as a catalyst and convener.

Since that year, it has secured around £1bn of central government and European funds for the Oxfordshire economy, supporting the creation of around 51,000 net new jobs between 2011 and 2020.

Over 800 businesses in the county were also supported with Brexit-specific advice following the UK’s departure from the European Union at the start of 2021.

To find out more about the campaign, click HERE.

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By Giles Gwinnett

Giles Gwinnett is a writer at The Business Magazine. He has been a journalist for more than 20 years and covered a vast array of topics at a range of media settings - in print and online. After his NCTJ newspaper training, he became a reporter in Hampshire before moving to a news agency in Gloucestershire. In recent years, he has been covering the financial markets along with company news for an investor-focused web portal. His many interests include politics, energy and the environment. He lives in Dorset.