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Pounds 14m in the Bank for You ; Centre to Help Your Firm Grow

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 September 2005, 09:00 CDT

By DAVID JONES Business Staff

A NEW way of helping highgrowth potential companies in Wales be as successful as global giant Microsoft was launched yesterday.

A pounds 14m Knowledge Bank for Business (KB4B) has been set up by the Welsh Assembly Government to provide support for companies across bio-tech, hitech, IT, financial services and other sectors.

The KB4B team will initially work with 50 high-growth companies across Wales providing focused consultancy advice, finance and training.

They include DeepStream Technologies at Bangor, Airbus' Broughton plant, Buckleybased Saygrove Electronics, Electroimpact UK on Deeside and Wrexham-based Pace Telecom.

Economic development minister Andrew Davies said: "The KB4B will play a major role in supporting Welsh companies with the potential to develop into international organisations, with a substantial impact on the future prosperity of our economy."

Some of the 50 companies KB4B will work with during its first year are SMEs with pounds 3m turnover and the potential to double that within four years. Others are larger with significant growth prospects. The KB4B launch took place at Cardiff-based IQE, one of the world's leading semiconductor companies.

William Gates founded Microsoft with a budget of just over pounds 5,000 30 years ago yesterday and now employs more than 60,000 people

Source: Daily Post; Liverpool

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