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Bleikers Smokehouse
Introduction
A rural North Yorkshire company has been helped to survive through the recession thanks to the Viking Loan Fund.
- £90,000 from the fund provided essential working capital
- The shareholders found £90,000-worth of matched private funding
- Up to 30 jobs were saved.
Summary
Bleiker’s Smokehouse of Glasshouses, North Yorkshire, is a thriving rural family business which uses traditional methods to cure and smoke high-quality fish and meat products. The business needed funding support to survive and grow but, despite a successful track record, the bank turned them down. Suddenly, those growth plans—and some of the 30 jobs there—were under threat.
Through Business Link Yorkshire, the Viking Loan Fund was able to step in with a loan of £90,000. In addition, the shareholders managed to raise matching loans of £90,000, providing a £180,000 cash boost to this valuable rural employer.
Not only have jobs been saved as a result, but new ones are likely to be created as the business continues to expand, shipping its very high-quality smoked salmon into a larger number of the UK’s major supermarket chains and food-service companies.
The Viking Loan Fund fund supports SMEs which face a shortfall of working capital by helping them through the recession. It is part of the £5m Transition Loan Fund, comprising 3 elements:
- The £1m Viking Loan Fund
- £1.2m for community development financial institutions (CFDIs)
- £2.8m for a business angels co-finance scheme.
What is Yorkshire Forward’s connection with this initiative?
Yorkshire Forward manages the Transition Loan Fund with Business Link Yorkshire.
