Cheshire based Converge TS are the first firm in the Halton Borough Council area to be awarded monies from the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership’s (LEP) Business Growth Grant which is supported by the Government’s Regional Growth Fund.
Converge TS, who specialise in providing cloud computing and managed IT services to professional firms, has won a grant of £160k on the back of an overall project spend of £800k. Together with the Grant award they have agreed a funding package with the RBS of £500k to help with the purchase of new larger offices at Daresbury Park, Cheshire.
The firm’s growth, driven by the uptake of their private cloud service amongst professional firms, has seen Converge TS invest £200k into their data centre offering in the last 2 months with more investment planned this year.
MD, Nigel Wright, said “Increasingly professional firms are moving to a private cloud based infrastructure in order to drive staff productivity by enabling mobile working anywhere from any device and to deliver upon their compliance requirements associated with data security and business continuity. The market is very much moving towards the cloud and we aim to position ourselves as the go to choice for UK professional firms.
We have a solid business model with 70% of our revenue contracted and recurring together with a 95%+ client retention rate. We feel the time is right to invest in expansion and have found Halton Borough Council, RBS and the LEP to be very supportive in helping us take the next step. Due to our continued growth we plan to recruit 16 new staff over the next 12 months.”
Cllr Eddie Jones, Halton Council’s Executive Board member for Economic Development, said: “Halton Council have been working closely with Converge for some time now to help the business realise their growth potential. Growth in businesses operating in what is known as the ‘knowledge sector’ is essential as we move towards creating jobs for the future.
In developing, operating and growing their business in Halton, Converge has demonstrated that Halton has everything a business needs to help it succeed, in terms of excellent locations, infrastructure and ongoing support provided by the Council.”
Mark Basnett, Executive Director, Liverpool City Region LEP said: “We developed the Business Growth Grant to help businesses just like Converge TS invest and grow and we are delighted that they have received £160K from this Programme.”
Mark added: “This £15million Programme will provide a huge boost to City Region’s economy over the next three years by helping local businesses realise their growth ambitions and through them create 2,000 new jobs for local people.”
Simon Parkinson, Business Relationship Manager from RBS said, “We’ve been impressed by the strong growth enjoyed by Converge TS over the last year and are delighted to provide funding to support their continued expansion into new premises. The firm operates in a niche market and are proving to be very successful as demand for their services is rising in the professional sector. This has resulted in the need to strengthen their workforce which is great news for the local economy.”