BCRS Business Loans delivers £15 million to West Midlands SMEs through MEIF

By Peter Davison

15 June 2023

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Andrew Hustwit, Head of Business Development at BCRS Business Loans, left, with Mark Wilcockson, Senior Investment Manager, British Business Bank

BCRS Business Loans has passed another lending landmark by delivering £15 million to businesses in the West Midlands through the Midlands Engine Investment Fund’s Small Business Loans Fund.

The regional alternative lender, which is a delivery partner for the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF), has to date provided finance to over 1400 businesses via the fund, which is forecast to create 5505 jobs and has safeguarded 1451 more.

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund is a collaboration between the British Business Bank and ten Local Enterprise Partnerships in the West, East and South Midlands.

Combining funding from LEPs, the European Regional Development Fund and the European Investment Bank, it provides more than £300m of investment to boost small business growth in the Midlands.

One of the latest businesses to secure MEIF investment from BCRS is Charisma Design & Print Ltd, based in Tyseley, Birmingham. The investment assisted the family commercial printing company with working capital and cashflow, safeguarding 13 jobs in the process.

BCRS Business Loans Chief Executive Stephen Deakin said: “We are delighted to have now lent £15 million from the MEIF Small Business Loans Fund to businesses across the West Midlands.

“Our investment levels have been strong across all corners of the region, helping SMEs with funding for a wide range of purposes, including growth capital, expansion projects, the leasing of commercial premises and asset acquisitions.

“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and a force for social good. Improving access to finance not only supports business growth but also strengthens the local community. We believe that no viable business should go unsupported.”

Mark Wilcockson, Senior Investment Manager, at the British Business Bank, said: “The MEIF Small Business Loan Fund was set up specifically for start-ups, and more established small businesses looking to grow. Preparing for growth is a key moment for a business, with many finding it difficult to obtain the finance they need.

“By hitting the £15m milestone, BCRS enables the Fund to meet its commitment to improving access to finance across the Midlands LEP areas by helping small businesses to shape future growth.”

The Midlands Engine Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2022 and the European Investment Bank. The FSE Group manages a section of MEIF that provides investments between £100,000 and £1.5 million to support growing SMEs across the region.

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.