North East engineering firm receives £30k investment

A Gosforth-based water tank installation specialist has secured a five-figure investment which it will use to scale up its business.

GWSS, which specialises in the installation, removal, maintenance and repair of large sectional water storage tanks where the provision of water isn’t based on a mains supply, has secured £30k of capital from the North East Small Loan Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund.

Specialising in water tanks for hotel, factory, hospital and university settings across the UK and overseas, it was recently called upon to install a 90,000 litre water tank at the new Nightingale Hospital in Sunderland.

GWSS worked with regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers to bring in the investment, which will be used to increase the business’s capacity to take on bigger projects, assist with supplying new equipment and implementing safety training for new team members.

Steve Walters, who founded GWSS in 2014, said: “We’ve grown steadily over the last five years and have built a healthy industry reputation for the professionalism of our team and the quality of the work that we do.

“Our plan to work directly with more clients on bigger projects, rather than as a sub-contractor as we often do now, means having additional equipment and staff resources in place to ensure we can fulfill their requirements.

“Even in the present climate, there are a lot of project opportunities out there and we’re confident that we’ll be able to keep growing the business as we’d planned. The investment option offered by NEL suited our business model and the team made the process of applying for it very straightforward.”

Part of the £120m North East Fund and aimed predominantly at smaller SMEs, the £9m North East Small Loan Fund typically offers loans of between £10k and £50k to businesses in Tyne & Wear, Durham and Northumberland.

Mike Guellard, investment executive at NEL Fund Managers, added: “GWSS has built an impressive track record in a very demanding and specialised sector and now has the resources in place it needs for the next stages of its growth plans.”