Member Article

Broader future for enterprise experts

A Sunderland enterprise agency has unveiled a new image and name as its work becomes more regional. After 24 years of helping to launch community businesses Social Enterprise Sunderland has become simply SES (sustainable - enterprise - strategies).

The Hendon-based agency helped deliver 228 new business start-ups in the city during 2006/07, and it has found more demand for its services across the North East. Now the agency is reflecting the change to its remit by dropping the Sunderland from its title and adopting the name SES.

Mark Heskett-Saddington, SES director, said: “Our heart will always be in Sunderland, as is the majority of our work, but we are regularly being called upon to do a wider range of enterprise activity across the region.

“Essentially our job has been to address the lack of enterprise in some areas by paying attention to disadvantaged residents and focusing upon the needs of workless households in deprived communities.

“We are delighted to have helped so many people and will always remain a grass-roots agency, but as our expertise is increasingly being called on across the region, we felt the time was right to re-brand the organisation to reflect our widening role.”

Figures from the latest social audit report on SES reveal that the 210 new businesses it helped create have a combined turnover of £5.9 million, of which 147 (70%) of the business starts resided with the 20 per cent most hard pressed areas of the city aiding the local economy along the way.

For more information on SES, visit www.ses.coop.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .