Drive West Midlands is a new initiative hoping to provide a central hub for businesses in the automotive sector in the West Midlands. Its aim is to support the development of SMEs to safeguard the future of the automotive industry in the region.

It plans to coordinate local support services for the automotive sector and collaborate with higher and further education to support skills development. Drive West Midlands has four main objectives:

• To support inward investment
• To develop a robust supply chain
• To improve partnership working
• To develop a sustainable operation.

By collaborating with the industry and the Government, Drive West Midlands aims to help develop a robust local supply chain, increase local sourcing levels at Tiers 1 and 2 and improve coordinated working across the entire West Midlands region.

The sector-specific support programme that it aims to deliver has been developed with input from industry experts and is led by Marketing Birmingham and UK Trade & Investment (UKTI)’s Automotive Investment Organisation (AIO), as well as Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).

The AIO works with overseas investors to increase investment into the UK automotive sector. Drive West Midlands offers services for international companies looking to invest in the West Midlands region, as well as offering support services for organisations already established in the area.

To find out more about the services offered by Drive West Midlands and how it could benefit your business visit its website. Or for further information about how to grow your business visit our own Growing your Business page.