Greybox completes Foundry move with NPIF backing
Creative content and photography firm Greybox Studio is set to double turnover one year after a £50,000 finanial injection.
The funding package was from NPIF-BFS & MSIF, part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), and helped the company to develop its new 6,000 sq ft Manchester headquarters.
Founded in 2014 by Simon Grimley and Lindsy Agana, Greybox is a creative photographic studio specialising in content for publication, social media and point of sale for clients, including Joules Clothing, Cotton Traders, Matalan and Boda Skins.
The company was awarded a £100,000 funding package in July 2017, including £50,000 from each of Barclays Bank and NPIF-BFS & MSIF Microfinance, which provides loans between £25,000 and £100,000 and is managed by alternative finance provider GC Business Finance (formerly BFS) and MSIF.
Since then, Greybox has added six more staff to its team, taking headcount to 10, and relocated from its Ardwick studio to develop new premises at Capital & Centric’s Foundry development on the edge of Media City.
The move has tripled available workspace and allowed the company to expand its client base into food and drink – discussions are already in place with several leading brands.
The company is also set for a bumper growth year, with revenues expected to double from £250,000 to £500,000 following the investment.
Simon Grimley, director at Greybox Studio, said: “The funding we received from NPIF and Barclays has been invaluable to the direction of our business.
“It allowed us to recruit a highly-skilled and motivated team. The move to our new studio has added a much greater level of professionalism to our service and has allowed us to accommodate a huge uplift in business which has seen us build our client base into new sectors.
“The growth which has followed, both across our team and financially, has been very pleasing and has put us on a trajectory that we hope will help us to achieve our ultimate aim of becoming the number one creative content agency in the UK.”
Mark Gibbons, senior loan manager at Business Finance Solutions, said: “I liked the business straight away, and wanted to work with the GreyBox team to provide the extra support they needed to help get them to the next level.
“After 15 months we can now see that progression, which is exactly what these funds were designed to do.”
Grant Peggie, director at British Business Bank, said: “Making differences to businesses and communities across the North is key to our objectives, so it is very positive that the team at Greybox has achieved such success since receiving NPIF funding.
“It is especially pleasing to see the new jobs created, and it gives us great encouragement for the future that, in Greybox, one of our first investments has made great strides with our support.”
