IN BIZ NC JUNE JULY 2021 qxp.qxp_A4 size 14/05/2021 09:58 Page 10
BUSINESS REPORT
UNIVERSITY SUPPORTS COMMUNITY IN A CRISIS Northampton’s Energy Centre tower shows its support for the NHS. Right: Nursing student Hannah Shaw Matt Bailey-Jones
NEW BUSINESS HITS TARGETS AND EXPANDS
For further information about Link Business Finance visit www.linkbusinessfinance.co. uk
10 inbusiness JUNE/JULY 2021
volunteering to support local University of Northampton staff hospital colleagues and gave his and students have worked spare time to support Northampton tirelessly throughout the General Hospital’s testing of pandemic to help the NHS, Covid-19 samples. charities and the wider The university’s community. Podiatry Clinic Shortly after the supported over 250 lockdown started in ‘OVER 500 patients during March 2020, the STUDENTS lockdown and the university RESPONDED WHEN Waterside campus provided 400 free THE GOVERNMENT housed temporary rooms in vacant ASKED FOR Covid-19 student STUDENTS TO assessment and accommodation to HELP THE NHS’ testing clinics. house healthcare Staff from the staff and patients to university’s Institute for ease the pressure on the Creative Leather Technologies NHS. University helped dye half a tonne of material accommodation was also that was turned into clinical scrubs temporarily given to a local charity for NHS staff. supporting rough sleepers. Molecular Bioscience lecturer More than 500 students from the David Young juggled daily lectures Faculty of Health, Education and and his own research with Society stepped up when the
Government asked for nursing, midwifery, occupational therapy and paramedic science students to help the NHS. The university helped the Red Cross when it needed a base in Northampton to store food for vulnerable people across the county and provided a large donation to local foodbanks. From January, people were also given the chance to share messages of thanks on the power tower screen on the University of Northampton’s well-known Energy Centre tower. More information about how the university has supported the wider community throughout Covid-19 can be found at www.northampton.ac.uk by searching for ‘Covid-19 – Serving the community in a crisis’.
FIRM IN RUNNING FOR TWO AWARDS An outsourced finance company has been shortlisted for two SME National Awards. Cornerstone FD, which celebrated its second year of trading in January, is up for Young Businessperson of the Year and Best New Business at the prestigious awards, the winner of which will be announced in July. It is the culmination of 24 months of success for Cornerstone FD, which already has two awards under its belt and has doubled its business and employed two new staff since September. Director Annie Thompson (pictured) said: “We are delighted to have been shortlisted for these honours. I am proud of all we have achieved in such a short space of time and during the uncertainty of Covid19. “We have stopped two big clients from losing their businesses during the pandemic and look set to triple our business during 2021.”
Photo courtesy of Nick Freeman Photography
A county firm that launched at the beginning of the Covid19 pandemic is expanding rapidly. Link Business Finance was founded by Matt Bailey-Jones in March 2020 to help other SMEs across the UK to grow through asset finance, commercial loans, invoice finance, secured loans and car finance products. Despite the pandemic, the firm has hit its targets for its first year, recently opened its new office in Moulton Park and has begun expanding its workforce. Matt said: “Last year was tough for everyone but we’re proud that we have achieved our targets. We celebrated moving into our second year by opening our new office in April and a few days later I was joined by our new account manager Kurt Jewell. “Kurt has been doing really well since he joined the business and I’m thrilled to say we’ll be expanding our workforce further soon. “We’ve been in talks with fellow Chamber members Northampton College and JBC Skills Training Ltd about recruiting some of their apprentices. “We’ve also been accepted onto the Government’s Kickstart Scheme which provides funding to create job placements for 16 to 24-yearolds. This is great news because we are keen to help more young people into work. It’s obviously good news for them but we believe it’s also good news for our business because we can teach them how to deliver a high quality service to our clients.”
