Worcestershire Here2Help & BEEP

Since opening our UK headquarters in Redditch, Worcestershire back in 2019, Tantec UK has achieved phenomenal growth, establishing the brand as a leading provider of plasma and corona surface treatments across the United Kingdom. Our dedicated team of specialists have worked hard to introduce our innovative range of systems and services into the marketplace, liaising closely with customers to convey the huge number of economic and environmental benefits they provide. Like many companies though, the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic posed challenges like we’d never seen before, revealing the need to improve the way we reached our customers and drive further brand awareness. Two excellent initiatives were on-hand to help – Worcestershire County Council’s Here2Help Business Programme and the Business Energy Efficiency Programme. If you’re a Worcestershire-based business looking for support, then we recommend checking them out.

Why did we need help?

As was the case for many companies, the arrival of Covid-19 and restrictions around meeting customers exposed a need to reach our market in different ways. We reviewed our website, social media and general marketing, identifying changes that were needed and the requirement for a marketing partner. This would obviously incur considerable cost at a time when the industry had been hugely affected, but two Government-funded schemes to assist businesses were on-hand to provide invaluable loans and grants. As a result, this led to the beginning of our highly-successful collaboration with our marketing team at Dynamize Marketing.

So let’s introduce the two programmes, what they do and how they could potentially help your business:

Here2Help Business

Launched by Worcestershire County Council in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Here2Help Business aims to support the recovery of local companies. Tantec UK were awarded a grant under the ‘Sustain and Grow’ element of the scheme, following our presentation of our company as a viable investment project that would benefit from the funding, helping us to address the challenges caused by the pandemic and build a stronger business for the future. The programme awards capital of upto £15,000 and may also provide matched funding at upto 40% of total project costs for Worcestershire businesses, provided they’re able to meet set criteria. In accordance with these requirements, we were able to demonstrate that the grant would help our brand diversify into new markets, instill further business resilience and promote supply chain development with engineering customers across Worcestershire.

Business Energy Efficiency Programme

We care about the environment here at Tantec UK and reflect this via our energy-efficient, chemical-free range of cutting-edge corona and plasma surface treatment systems. As a business, we’re always looking to reduce our carbon footprint and help our environment. We discovered The Business Energy Efficiency Programme (BEEP); a superb initiative that provides free energy and resource efficiency reviews – as well as grants of up to £20,000 – for SME businesses in Worcestershire who want to achieve better energy efficiency, a smaller impact on the environment and reduced costs. Partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund, it is managed by a number of regional councils as well as the Herefordshire & Worcestershire and Shropshire Chambers of Commerce.

If you’re an SME located – and trading – from Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Telford and Wrekin or Shropshire with less than 250 employees, you’ll be halfway towards meeting funding criteria. You also need to turn over less than €50m per annum or have a balance sheet of less than €43m. Furthermore, you will be subject to a minimum energy spend and need to be eligible for full European Regional Development Funding (ERDF) which is assessed upon application to the programme.

So far, 780 businesses across the four regions have received this help, saving 18,000 tons of greenhouse gases from release into the atmosphere. Here at Tantec UK, we’re incredibly proud to be playing our part and are entirely grateful for the funding received via this fantastic initiative. As a result, we can continue to highlight our world-class credentials as an green provider of environmentally-friendly plasma and corona surface treatment systems, backed by an efficient, low-energy company facility.

A better future

There’s no doubt that the two initiatives have played a pivotal role in a very successful 2021 for Tantec UK, helping us to drive brand awareness via effective marketing, increase sales and continue reducing our carbon footprint. We’re passionate about playing our part and encourage SMEs across the region to review how these programmes can help reduce their environmental impact whilst driving company performance.

For more information, you can visit the Worcestershire County Council’s Here2Help Business Programme and the Business Energy Efficiency Programme websites. If you’d like to discuss how Tantec UK can support your business with environmentally-friendly, high-quality surface treatment systems, contact our team of specialists today on 01527 304 004 or info@tantec-uk.com.