Strategic business support and investment is helping Fenland businesses to scale their growth and create lasting impact in the community and beyond.
The Cambridgeshire Community Reuse and Recycling Network (CCORRN) is a social enterprise based in March, that reinvests profits into their local Fenland community. Their income is made from repurposing, reinventing, and remanufacturing products that would normally go to waste.
CCORRN’s main revenue stream is the remanufacturing of surplus paint, one of the main contributors to landfill. Surplus paint is manufactured into either ReColour, RM or bespoke paint ranges – giving it a new lease of life.
The challenge: Scaling up production to reduce waste quicker and meet demands
When CCORRN started their paint recycling service in 2013, they were mixing in small fifty litre batches. They’ve been growing production ever since and are currently at a point where they need to scale up with new equipment and staff because the demand is bigger than they can meet. They’re also receiving more unused paint than they can handle.
Their goal is to save one million litres of paint from going to landfill by the end of 2023. But with any business scaling and growth plans come challenges.
Originally, they had planned to keep increasing their capacity incrementally over 2-5 years. They were in a cycle of always stunting their progress based on cash flow, having to save up before buying any new equipment. This also brings difficulties to employ and train new staff.
The solution: Rapidly reducing the timescale for growth with investment in equipment
Nikki DiGiovanna, the Development Director of CCORRN, reached out to Growth Works and received a large capital investment after submitting a successful application. They are using this to hit the ground running with their growth plans, investing in larger equipment that will inevitably require hiring new staff to fulfill manufacturing needs.
She said: “The Growth Works funding was perfect as it’s about accelerating that growth… it’s not that we can’t do these things, it’s about how fast we can do them, how fast we can grow - that’s the big difference for us. Do we want to wait another two years until we can go to that next level?”
Nikki also explained that CCORRN had “been struggling with our carbon-footprint. As an eco-organisation, we really wanted to improve what we were doing… we’re marketing a recycled product but using a diesel van to collect and deliver it” and “were agonising over this big cost of going even greener and how we would do that” but funding available with Growth Works will help them buy an electric van.
“Now they can make ‘green’ deliveries sooner than expected with an investment that will pay off for years to come being able to have some support through this grant to purchase that means…. we will reap the benefits when it comes to lower fuel costs and lower repair costs going forward, we will save money in the long-run”
The outcome: Scalable manufacturing processes and plans to implement an educational system for recruitment
With funding now available to scale their manufacturing operations, CCORRN are reviewing their systems and processes to ensure they are remaining strategic.
Growth Works are also helping to set up an educational system to attract, hire, and retain dedicated employees from the local area. With this talent programme, CCORRN will be able to increase their future output by 400 per cent and provide training for essential skills.
Their business plan is solid, as Nikki explains, “what we now have is a very clear plan”, with equipment and vans on pre-order. Their next steps involve bringing forward the new team hires. Nikki told us she’d highly recommend eligible businesses to apply “if you have a clear plan for growth and you want to accelerate it, this is a really good programme”.
Could your business benefit from expert support and funding to help you unlock further growth?
Check your eligibility and tell us about your business to join our programme at at growthworkscoaching.uk/get-started/
For more information, contact the team at enquiries@growthworks.uk
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