05.12.03
High-tech engineering firm sets up shop in North Cornwall

Finance Cornwall is a £20 million investment fund backed by £9 million from the Objective One European Regional Development Fund.

A high-tech engineering firm has set up new specialist workshops in North Cornwall with the help of an investment package involving Finance Cornwall.

Longshore Systems Engineering Ltd was established at the start of the year to create an engineering support service providing sophisticated instrumentation and control equipment for individuals and companies working in research and development areas.

The Delabole-based company was formed by Dylan Simpson, a graduate in manufacturing systems with more than 10 years experience in the field of precision engineering and scientific instrumentation.

Now, a £33,000 investment package including Finance Cornwall – the £20 million investment fund for business in or locating to Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly – has enabled Longshore to move into new premises in a customised industrial unit at Pentire Workshops in Delabole.

Dylan explained: "The company was founded predominantly to provide a design and realisation service that spans all engineering disciplines and offers our customers the complete package irrespective of the size of the project.

"We specialise in designing and engineering instrumentation and special-purpose machinery for the pharmaceutical, food and chemical industries, the academic sector and the equipment manufacturers that supply them. Our key area is in environmental process control, particularly high precision temperature and humidity generation and control, together with temperature pressure and cryogenic systems. That said, we have the experience and now the tooling to undertake most general engineering projects.”

He added: "The company is founded on a genuine enthusiasm for engineering, and as a flexible and forward-thinking company, we offer full prototyping and product development services, design and machining services, together with our own unique products.

"Because we're a small company, we can often take on the 'tricky' and low volume work that larger firms simply don't find viable - and often at a lower cost and with faster turn-around. Our location, combined with our ethos of investing in advanced tooling, also allows us to keep costs to a minimum whilst offering a state-of-the-art service.”

Clients won by Longshore to date include Surface Measurement Systems, an award-winning UK company that leads the field in scientific instrumentation development and has worked with such corporate giants as Pfizer, Dupont and Unilever.

The £33,000 package involving Finance Cornwall included a £15,000 investment in specialist CAD/CAM tooling for the company's new workshops. The investment will also give Longshore additional working capital over the next 12 months and should allow the company to take on three new members of staff.

Dylan said: "This investment has not only allowed us to move into premises fitted out to suit the work that we do but is also providing us with the working capital that will help secure our position over the next year and build on what Longshore has already achieved.

"We had just taken on an electronics and computer systems engineer which will allow us to develop and strengthen that area of the engineering service offered.”

The investment package put together for Longshore includes £11,500 from their Business Loan Fund provided by Finance Cornwall, with additional funding coming from the South West Investment Group (SWIG) and HSBC.

Finance Cornwall's business loan fund manager, Jeff Lenihan, said: "Longshore is a new company but Dylan has extensive experience of his industry and the company, which is aiming at a very specialised niche market, has already proved itself with new clients and products.”

Peter Casey, managing director of SWIG said: "The aim of our funding is to provide help to those businesses that have great potential but lack enough capital or security to go ahead with a project without extra help, particularly in the form of interest free finance. Longshore will be a great boost to the local economy.”

Finance Cornwall has investment funds offering a combination of loans and equity ranging from just £5,000 to £650,000 to small and medium sized businesses that cannot source all the funding they need from elsewhere.

Funding is available to businesses whose principal place of operation is, or will be, in Cornwall or the Isles of Scilly. The funds are managed by Alliance Fund Managers Ltd, which is regulated by the Financial Services Authority in the course of investment business.

To find out more visit www.financecornwall.co.uk

Jeff Lenihan
Business Loan Fund Manager
Finance Cornwall
01872 272288

Editor's notes:

Jason Clark
Communications Adviser
Objective One Partnership Office
Castle House
Pydar Street
Truro TR1 2UD
Tel: 01872 241379
Fax: 01872 241388
objectiveone@cornwall.gov.uk

back to top