Scottish Enterprise launches ‘ambitious plan’ to drive growth

SCOTTISH Enterprise chief executive Lena Wilson was today expected to unveil “the most ambitious business plan we have put forward” as she announces a programme to increase the number of growth firms SE supports by a fifth over the next three years.

Wilson said the agency was now focused on helping those firms identified by research as having the greatest potential to add value to the economy and create jobs. These firms represented the “engine of the Scottish economy”, she said.

As a cornerstone of the three-year business plan, SE will work with up to 400 more companies with significant growth potential through its account management programme. SE works intensively with a company’s management team to understand its growth opportunities. “We try to get managements to think about growth and about being ambitious,” she said. “It is amazing how many do not have a business plan for growth.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Wilson said the agency would offer support such as grants and aid for research and development, but it was not essentially about money. “It is about connections with other businesses, reaching new markets, acquiring companies,” she said. “We help them get premises, develop their people, negotiate with universities and prepare a tender.”

Research has revealed that between 6 and 7 per cent of companies drive most of the growth, most of the job creation and most of the international activity – and these are the focus for SE’s attention.

Greater effort will be put into creating global opportunities for Scottish firms – particularly in Brazil, China and India – and SE plans to open offices in Rio de Janeiro and possibly Sao Paulo. Wilson said she also expected to be promoting connections with South Africa and south-east Asia, particularly Vietnam and Thailand.

SE is targeting between 8,000 and 10,000 companies for help in exporting and improving their international sales by more than 40 per cent by 2015 – an increase of £1.7 billion.

Other measures in the business plan include increasing innovation among 400 firms to generate an additional £100 million in turnover and helping 500 companies improve their efficiency to generate £75m in benefits. It also aims to leverage a further £250m of capital investment via regional selective assistance and secure £75m of private sector capital through the Scottish Investment Bank’s equity funds.

Crawford Gillies, chairman of Scottish Enterprise, said: “We have set ourselves more ambitious targets for the year ahead because we recognise we need to do more to help companies respond to the challenges they’re facing and get Scotland’s economy moving. While we’re continuing to focus on our long-term goals, we recognise we need to do something extra to respond to more immediate challenges.”

Wilson will visit Linlithgow-based mobile phone network specialist Calnex today to launch her business plan.

Calnex, which makes equipment for testing phone networks, is one of SE’s account-managed companies and has grown its turnover by 42 per cent to about £4m over the past year. The firm’s technology is made in Scotland and then exported globally.