Finance Yorkshire funding help Weedfree secure two major European contracts

After receiving additional funding from Finance Yorkshire, Goole-based Weedfree has able to secure two new long term contracts in Europe.

As well as winning a five-year contract to to treat a rail network in Denmark, the weed control specialist company has also been contracted to treat the entire Norwegian rail network - 4,000km of track a year – with herbicide using its weed spray train, for six years.

Finance Yorkshire, which has supported Weedfree since 2011, invested a total of £250k last year from its Business Loans fund to support the company in marketing its services to the European countries.

Employing 60 full-time staff and as many as 150 during peak seasonal working periods, Weedfree is also marketing its amenity weed control systems in the US and Canada.

Finance Yorkshire provides seedcorn, loan and equity linked investments, ranging from £15k to £2m to help a range of small and medium sized businesses to meet their funding requirements for growth and development.

Neil Bangham, Managing Director of Weedfree, said: “We’ve used the funding from Finance Yorkshire to bolster our UK business by investing in training which has enabled us to broaden the spectrum of services we offer.

“More recently, the funding has really helped us to market ourselves in Europe and secure the new contracts in Denmark and Norway, adding to the work already carried out by the company in Belgium.

“The Business Loans work really well for us – the response is always quick, which is important in order to achieve these new contracts – and the broader support we receive from Finance Yorkshire is also very helpful.”

Alex McWhirter, Finance Yorkshire’s chief executive, said: “Weedfree is a terrific example of the type of regional company where our investments make a real difference at the right time in the life cycle of the business. We will be continuing to invest in SMEs throughout 2015, supporting businesses like Weedfree to grow, create jobs and become even more profitable.”

Ian Atkinson, Finance Yorkshire investment manager, added: “Weedfree is an established business with ambition to strengthen its UK position and grow its international sales at the same time. Our continued investment has proven instrumental in enabling Neil and his team to expand their operation both at home and abroad.”