An electronics and software design consultancy, which specialises in the automotive industry, has refurbished its premises in Coventry after investing a five-figure sum.
Embed Ltd has been based at the Viscount Centre at the University of Warwick Science Park in Millburn Hill Road for the last four years.
But more space was needed to fulfil a new contract with a new major electric vehicle manufacturer based in California, USA.
Embed contacted the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP) Growth Hub who helped them to secure a grant of just over £7,500 from Coventry City Council’s Coventry & Warwickshire Business Support Programme, which is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
The work, which totalled in the region of £25,000, has led to a former garage area being transformed into a state-of-the-art engineering studio and a further meeting room has been added.
Embed has created four new jobs as a result of the grant and now employ 33 staff with a junior hardware engineer, test engineers and an embedded software engineer to be added in the near future.
Ivan Wilson, a director at Embed, said the business had reached a point where they needed to expand.
“We were struggling to fit all our staff in to the office to support a new big project that we had won,” he said.
“The work means we have more desks for our engineers and we had a large reception area that was under-used that has led to the creation of another meeting room.
“The Growth Hub helped to secure a grant to pay for a portion of the building work and we paid the remainder.
“We are very pleased with the result and it has really helped us since we are no longer working in cramped conditions and we have been able to deliver the new project on time which is crucial.”
Embed’s impressive list of customers includes Panasonic, Jaguar Land Rover, McLaren, Bentley and Tata Motors.
The ambitious business has also received support through the Growth Hub from Employment Solutions and Skills 4 Growth, who are co-funding eight members of staff to undertake an ILM Project Management qualification to support Embed’s business growth. The Coventry & Warwickshire Skills 4 Growth Programme is part-funded by the European Social Fund.
Ivan added: “Recruiting is always tricky particularly in a specialised area such as ours. It was really helpful to have Richard Hales from Employment Solutions to join me on the interview panel. His help to recruit for the business development role was fantastic since my experience is in interviewing engineers.
“The help from Skills 4 Growth had led to one of our staff, Stathis Larios, starting an ILM course which is designed to develop future leaders and we have held a mental health day to raise awareness among staff.”
Justine Chadwick, Account Manager at the CWLEP Growth Hub, said Embed’s highly-skilled staff are now able to work in much better surroundings.
“The grant that we helped to secure along with Embed’s investment has allowed them to create more office space next to its vehicle electronics integration laboratory which means the team can work more quickly and efficiently to meet their deadlines,” she said.
“The re-fit is already making a tremendous difference for a company whose cutting-edge technology is used by its clients throughout the world.”
Caption: From the left, Justine Chadwick (CWLEP Growth Hub), Kierandeep Bal (Coventry City Council), Mandy Jeffs (Embed) and Ivan Wilson (Embed)