An ambitious husband and wife team have manufactured a new career after receiving a £50,000 Virgin StartUp loan to set up Wyvern Precision Ltd in Darlington, thanks to assistance from TEDCO Business Support and Darlington Borough Council.
Lisa Marie and Nick Peart from Darlington started trading in January 2019 following their successful application to Virgin StartUp for a low-cost business loan to fund the initial launch costs and premises to set up Wyvern Precision Ltd at Morton Park.
The new business will meet a specific need identified by the management team to manufacture specialist, smaller parts and batch work in the Darlington area for a number of sector partners.
Virgin StartUp offers government-backed low-cost business loans designed to help entrepreneurs gain access to the capital they need to launch new enterprises in the region. The programme is exclusively delivered in the North East by TEDCO Business Support, giving businesses access to a wide range of financing options when it comes to securing business capital.
Lisa Marie Peart, co-founder of Wyvern Precision Ltd said: “Nicholas has many years of experience manufacturing parts and through work with a number of local partners in the area, became aware that there was a gap in the market for a precision engineering firm concentrated in the manufacture of smaller parts or one-off batch work.
“There is a thriving local industry for larger contracts and design work but Wyvern has been launched to deliver the needs of smaller contracts, which have been typically difficult to service.
“With the Virgin StartUp financing place, we were able to immediately set up our premises with specialist equipment to deliver on contracts and employ a workshop manager to manage deliveries and select operations in cooperation with Nicholas”
The team have steady growth plans for 2019 with one new employee already in place and opportunities to expand further based on a positive new business pipeline for the remainder of the year.
Nicholas comments: “With Lisa managing the back office operations and business development and myself taking the lead on the manufacturing, we wanted to create a new company that can take advantage of our skills and deliver a quality service with real potential.
“We manufacture precision parts using CNC machines from our dedicated premises in Morton Park and we have scope to steadily increase our manufacturing capacity as the business develops. Thanks to the excellent support from TEDCO and Virgin StartUp, we were able to secure capital required to make the investment into our new business and special thanks must go to Mark Johnston for helping us through the application process.”
Wyvern Precision Engineering worked with TEDCO Business Support following an introduction from Darlington and Borough Council to support the ambitions of new business start-ups in the area looking for expert guidance and finance. Lisa and Nicholas worked with business advisor Mark Johnston from TEDCO to help develop their financing plan.
Mark Johnston comments: “I am delighted to see the ambitions of Lisa and Nicholas finally realised with the launch of Wyvern Precision Ltd. It was clear from the outset that their experience, drive and careful market research to establish rewarding partnerships in the area would result in a business with positive future prospects and I wish the team the very best of luck going forward.”
Chris McEwan, Darlington Borough Council’s cabinet member for Economy and Regeneration, said: “This is a great example of how the council and other organisations can help entrepreneurs to grow and develop their business ideas.
“It is great to see fledgling businesses moving from strength to strength in one of our key sectors – advanced engineering and manufacturing. Our Business Support team and other local organisations, are there to help anyone with a business idea to find the help, advice and funding they need to grow.”
