Busy year for Business Gateway

By SCOTT REID
Published on 02/07/2012 00:56

Business Gateway has helped more than 11,000 companies form during the past year, new figures today reveal, though the total is slightly down on the previous record.

The business advice service, whose board includes members from Scottish Enterprise and local authorities, has also seen visits to its website hit an all-time high. March saw numbers total 65,545, an increase of almost 66 per cent over the highest monthly figure in 2011 – 39,523 – also for March.

Start-up figures for the year to March 2012 show that 11,027 companies were formed, compared with 11,242 in the previous 12-month period – the highest number since Business Gateway’s inception in 2003.

Enterprise minister Fergus Ewing said: “It’s clear that Business Gateway continues to offer much-valued support to start-up companies as well as more established businesses across Scotland. We are committed to maintaining this with a focus on helping companies reach their potential and break into growth markets.”

In the last six months, the “training directory” has emerged as the most visited part of the body’s website, overtaking the “start-up” directory.