Successful Funding Case Study 2 – LMR Geartech

LMR Geartech is a Sittingbourne based manufacturer of specialist gear cutting. It principally serves the UK but has recently successfully expanded into North America and Europe.

Unlike many other small engineering companies, it not only survived the recession but managed to grow at a rate of 10% year on year for the last 5 years. On the strength of this, the company asked themselves what they could do to improve their business if they were successful with an application for a TIGER loan of £145,000, which LMR would have to match.

The answer was simple as MD Dave Rungay explains; “Our first move would be to acquire the empty factory next door. This extra 3,000 sq ft would double our size overnight. We then thought about how to make existing items more economically, which in turn would lead to making us more competitive and subsequently more profitable.”

With this additional funding the company did just that and increased its capacity which meant they were able to start manufacturing gears from as small as 1.5mm to as large as 1.5 metres. This gave LMR the largest capacity in the south of England. One of the key acquisitions with the TIGER fund was a fully computerised measuring machine which is a necessity for the exacting quality standards demanded by today’s market, an absolute must for progression.

One of their most recent success has been the winning back of an important contract. ‘Cubic’, one of the biggest transportation companies in the USA originally ended their association because the freight cost involved priced them out of the market, but LMRs increased capacity and competitiveness, won the contract back despite some intense rivalry. In terms of job creation, the funding will mean an additional 8 jobs, and the company hopes to take on one full time apprentice for each of the next 7 years. As to the future the company aims to double its size between now and 2019.

To find out how your business could access funding grants and schemes, similar to those used by Entity Group, visit our page on funding.

Find out more about LMR Gear-Tech at www.lmrgeartech.com

NB: TIGER funding is now closed but alternate funding schemes are available for a wide variety of businesses.