Home Other Business News LEP Popup business café comes to Huddersfield

LEP Popup business café comes to Huddersfield

Eric Hawthorn - LEP Business Innovation & Growth Panel

Businesses in Huddersfield are encouraged to attend a Popup business event on 14th July at the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre, where they will find local experts waiting to give practical answers to questions on a range of business topics. It is totally informal, more like a café than a conference and is completely free.

Gill Watson and Ramesh Bains, Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) growth managers for Kirklees, will be there to explain the support available to local businesses. They will be joined by local experts who have volunteered their time to share their knowledge on social media; website optimisation; tax and accountancy; staff development and training; marketing; developing new products; access to finance and how to try new markets.

Eric Hawthorn, managing director of Radio Design and chair of the LEP’s Business Innovation and Growth panel, said:

“Whether you are starting-up or a more established operation, this is an efficient way to speak to a number of local experts on issues that impact on your business. There is a wealth of support out there and local Popup events like this are an informal, low-risk way of answering your business questions and sampling the support available to help boost the performance of your business.”


Katrina Cliffe, Founder of local agency KC Communications, one of the local experts who will be giving advice at the event said:

“Social Media usage has exploded over the past 10 years. Whether or not you are using it, there is simply no escaping it! As a business if you’re not using this platform to promote your business or service, then it’s worth asking yourself the question, why not? If you have some trepidation I can go through some tips to get you started. If you are an occasional user, I can work through how you can plan it in better. Whatever your question, you can ask it at the Popup.”

There is a wide range of support available and local businesses are already benefitting from LEP assistance. Kirklees-based company, Batley Foundry have benefited from a £20,000 LEP grant which supported the company’s £150,000 investment, to invest in new state of the art machinery. Mike Powell, sales and commercial director at Batley Foundry said:

“This investment has been fundamental to improve our machinery efficiency. The previous model was 41 years old and the new system is much more reliant and time effective. We are now able to use the furnace to full capacity which has created a wider market sector for the company.”

Dewsbury-based company, Richard Alan Engineering, has been impressed by their local LEP growth manager’s efforts to improve digital opportunities for business in Kirklees. He said: “We sometimes need to do online conferencing”. With Ramesh’s help the company are in the final stages of applying for a cyber scheme to achieve this.