A BRIDGWATER manufacturing business is expanding to create 29 new jobs after winning a grant of £150,000 from the GAIN Growth Fund.

Elecsis Switchgear, which makes electrical switchgear worldwide, won the grant to support a planned £424,000 project to pay for new machinery and the expansion is forecast to create at least 29 new jobs at the firm’s Somerset head office over the next two years.

The grant is one of 26 awards totalling £2.8million which have been made from the GAIN Growth Fund this year to growing South West businesses eager to expand.

The Growth Fund, a key part of the Plymouth and South West Peninsula City Deal, aims to support companies with growth aspirations to expand more quickly, and the grants are scheduled to create 479 jobs and unlock £13.5million in private investment.

Nick Messarra, business development director at Elecsis Switchgear, said: “We wanted to expand as part of our long-term strategy for the business, and we were absolutely delighted to win this grant from the Growth Fund to support our plans.

“The grant means we can buy new equipment and machinery straight away to make the business more efficient, and we can create more good quality, skilled jobs for local people in Bridgwater.

“The Growth Fund team has supported us enormously throughout the application process and they have truly been a huge help.

“We are over the moon to have won this grant; it has brought forward our growth plans tremendously, and saved us many years of waiting.”

Elecsis Switchgear has been trading for over 30 years works in aerospace, education, healthcare and construction, and has manufactured in excess of £30million of equipment for the Ministry of Defence, with current major multi-million pound international projects.

The £150,000 grant from the GAIN Growth Fund is one of 26 awards ranging from £30,000 to £250,000 made to businesses from Somerset, North Devon, Plymouth, Torbay and Cornwall which demonstrated impressive growth plans and put forward a strong case for support to help them deliver a specific project which will create new jobs.