Rural Businesses Being Helped To Reach Potential
Rural businesses in Carmarthenshire are being helped to reach their potential with support from a Carmarthenshire County Council £2m fund.
The Carmarthenshire Rural Enterprise Fund has awarded a series of grants to assist businesses across the county to develop new and existing premises.
To date CREF has approved £320,559.47 of grant funding, anticipated to lever private sector investment of £682,874.36 and create 29 jobs in rural Carmarthenshire. Further applications have also been received and are currently being assessed which combined are expected to take up the full budget available, create a further 120 jobs and lever in a further £1.7m of private sector investment.
One of the recent approvals under the fund was the award of £128,000 towards the construction of a convenience store at Woodlands Garage, Drefach.
The applicant Simon Lewis is a retailer and wholesaler from within the Gwendraeth Valley, having started out within the well-known Luther Lewis wholesaler established by his grandfather. The project will provide 12 full-time equivalent jobs over the next two years within the Gwendraeth Valley.
Carmarthenshire County Council executive board member for regeneration and leisure Cllr Meryl Gravell said: “I’m delighted that the CREF scheme has been able to support these businesses to upgrade their premises and create new jobs.
“I am very grateful to the officers who work closely with the private sector in the rural areas and am pleased that funding has been made available to create employment within rural Carmarthenshire. “
Council Leader Cllr Emlyn Dole said: “CREF has been set up to create job opportunities in rural Carmarthenshire and it does this by offering grants so that businesses can make necessary enhancements to their premises.”
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