Black Country manufacturers are being urged to make the most of a new £125 million fund to support their work.

The government’s Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative is a £125 million pot, created after the Black Country LEP, together with partners Coventry and Warwickshire, Greater Birmingham and Solihull and Liverpool City Region, made a successful joint £25 million bid for regional growth funding.

After approving the bid, the government put up an additional £100 million in order to offer support to more manufacturing supply chain initiatives across the country.

And as one of the trailblazers in making the funding available, the Black Country LEP is urging businesses in the region, which are part of supply chains, to make a bid for the funding.

Stewart Towe, chair of the Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership, said:

“We are delighted as a region to have secured the £25 million to support the development of the supply chain with our partners in Greater Birmingham & Solihull, Coventry & Warwickshire and Liverpool City Region. Black Country firms will be eligible, along with companies in the other three areas, to bid into this £25 million pot and Black Country companies can also bid into the additional £100 million fund available across the country.”

Meanwhile hundreds of businesses are expected to attend a launch event at the ICC in Birmingham on April 27 when full details of the scheme will be announced.

At the event companies will find out how the funding initiative will look to support existing supply chains, while also encouraging new suppliers to set up in this country.
The £125m Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative is being funded by the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills. Birmingham City Council will administer the fund, with registration and processing of applications undertaken by the Technology Strategy Board.