26 October 2006

Three Nottingham companies are vying for a £1m investment in their business. Service Alert, 4energy and IMPT are taking part in the Connect Midlands £1m Investment Challenge. The money would allow the businesses - which are still reasonably new - to expand into new markets. But, like on the BBC's Dragon's Den, the winners will have to give up a share in their company. The challenge is sponsored by BT and being backed by Catapult Venture Managers. The winners will be announced at the East Midlands Conference Centre on November 16. Service Alert, based in Sneinton, has six directors and an order book worth £270,000. It produces a novel gadget which allows diners to call over waiters to order drinks or food at the touch of a button. The Touch4 Service pod is already in use at Archie's Restaurant in Sandiacre and the Curry Lounge chain. Service Alert director Colm Watling explained: "We only started selling really in October but we've got a big order book. "The money would allow us to access more markets faster, expand our sales and marketing operation and retain the necessary people to do that. "It will allow us to embark upon a series of cost-down engineering initiatives which would allow us to fend off foreign competition and continue to manufacture in the UK. "Even if the investment does not come, we have a few irons in the fire. We would look at other business angle-type investments." Ruddington-based firm 4energy is also hopeful of investment. Managing director Pat Tindale has five staff and the company has been running for a year-and-a-half, with a turnover of between £100,000 and £200,000 expected by December 2006. It produces air-conditioning units which cool electrical equipment and already has three major contracts with electricity companies. Mr Tindale hopes to start production in early 2007. "The money would mean we can start manufacturing and start exploiting our ideas a lot faster, " he said. IMPT is based at BioCity, in Pennyfoot Lane, and is already attracting interest from the Department for Trade and Industry. It has developed an advanced coating technique, mainly used on wind turbine blades at the moment, which makes coating faster and more efficient. The £1m investment would allow the firm to prepare its commercial strategy.
Matthew Thorne, engineering manager, said: "Our process is capable of entering into other markets, like photo voltaics, flat panels and biomedical as well. "We've never had the opportunity to break those markets. If we don't get the money, we're currently doing rounds of investment and we're looking at various projects on a smaller scale."