Cavendish and Enterprise First support new businesses after redundancies.

A global manufacturer of mobile phones needed to make 700 people redundant in the South of England. Knowing the duty of care they had to their employees, they requested the help of Cavendish partner Enterprise First  to support their employees through the process as much as possible.

Employees facing redundancy were given the opportunity to develop their own businesses and receive support in the form of assistance with their business plans, group workshops, and 1-2-1 support provided by the employer and external organisations. At the end of the project, the businesses would be considered for investment of up to €15,000 by the employer. The majorty of employees chose to develop businesses in the mobile industry (15%), closely followed by marketing (14%).

Enterprise First were invited by the employer to support the project; the employer wanted internal involvement first, followed by independent external review of business plans and delivery of the workshops. 

At the end ofthe project Enterprise First analysed the business plans and of the 700 employees in the project, 124 had submitted viable plans suitable for investment. Further support and advice on the next steps was given to the employees whose business plans were not currently viable. 

As a result of the project, the employer invested an average of £9,500 into each viable business – a total investment of £1.1M.

The success story in numbers:

• An average of £9,500 into each viable business.

• A total investment of £1.1M.

• The total average investment raised for each business was £33,661 - 3.5 x the employer’s investment and a total investment of £4.2M.

• The projected turnover for the 124 viable businesses by the end of year two was £44M.

• The projected number of jobs created by the businesses by the end of year two was 288.

• The highest volume of businesses were created in the following market sectors: Mobile (15%), marketing (14%), electrical services (9%) and leisure (8%).