Ceramics firm gets £50,000 from Stoke loan fund
A STOKE-based business support fund set up just weeks ago has approved its first loan.
Ceramics firm Camal Enterprises has secured £50,000 from the Stoke-on-Trent Business Loan Fund.
Camal, based in Chatterley Valley, near Tunstall, has used the cash to create two new jobs.
The £200,000 loan fund was launched by Stoke-on-Trent City Council and not-for-profit lender Black Country Reinvestment Society (BCRS).
Sums of between £10,000 and £50,000 are available to local firms.
Camal, which is based at the Genesis Centre at the North Staffordshire Business Park, employs 12 people.
The firm has developed its own range of traditional figurines and tableware called English Ladies, which is designed here but made in Thailand and Vietnam.
Export accounted for 27 per cent of the firms sales in 2011, with goods going to countries including Australia, Canada, Russia and India.
At the time of launch Paul Kalinauckas, chief executive of BCRS, said: “This fund will certainly help Stoke on Trent develop, grow and prosper. Small businesses are under the radar when it comes to access to finance, which is holding back their growth prospects.
“It is an exciting time to find new and innovative ways of non-bank lending and we are looking forward to providing local people with job opportunities and creating wealth in the Stoke on Trent area.”
