Industry experts at Jumpstart R&D Tax Credits unravelled the jargon for Pennine Weavers so they could claim £20,000 a year to reinvest into technology and design.
The Keighley based weavers are one of the world’s leading fabric designers and manufacturers making high quality fabric for designer apparel for brands including Ralph Lauren as well as the bespoke tailoring market.
Bureaucracy is often the biggest hurdle to growth for SMEs. Too many forms with little or no real benefit deter many innovative companies applying for tax credits they are entitled to.
But industry experts at Jumpstart R&D Tax Credits unravelled the jargon for Pennine Weavers so they could claim £20,000 a year to reinvest into technology and design.
Aware of R&D tax credits, MD Gary Eastwood, had discussed the possibility of claiming them with the company’s accountants, but dismissed the idea because it would tie up too much management time that could be better used elsewhere.
He changed his mind after meeting the Jumpstart team. “I met Jumpstart R&D Tax Credits at an industry event and decided to take a second look,” he said.
“Immediately they impressed us with their team of technical experts who understood quickly and easily what we were eligible to claim for,” he said.
“Employing experts who understand the complexity of technical uncertainty and can tell us from the early stages saved a lot of time and prevented us going down blind alleys. It means that any claim we make is almost guaranteed because they have checked it and they have made us aware of what to look for in our processes.
Minimising time & effort
“There are two main areas of risk for Pennine Weavers. We have to buy niche machinery and then modify it. That commonly doesn’t attract R&D tax credits. However, the element of technical uncertainty is when we make small machines for our bespoke work we don’t know if they will deliver the results our customers want. That can attract R&D tax credits,” he explained.
“Jumpstart do all the work and importantly make sure that our reclaims are HMRC compliant.”
Employing 72 people and investing heavily in new machinery working with Jumpstart to reclaim R&D tax credits has freed up valuable management time and released some cash for Pennine Weavers which they have been able to reinvest into machinery.
“Jumpstart has a high success rate and they take on the administrative burden leaving us to get on with our business,” added Gary.
Nicole Ballantyne is the Customer Engagement Manager for Yorkshire Jumpstart. She said: “As Jumpstart continues to gain successful outcomes for clients, we are also getting the message across that the R&D tax credits programme applies not only to enterprises engaged in blue-sky research, but essentially to every company which improves on systems and procedures, or discovers new ways of doing things.
“Innovation is spearheading the UK’s very welcome economic recovery, which was highlighted recently by the Chancellor, and companies who accept the challenge of doing things differently are the catalysts for growth.”
