Trust's 10 years as the midwife to baby businesses

STONEHOUSE'S Millfields Trust has celebrated 10 years of achievement with many of the businesses which it has helped nurture.

After a business lunch the trust, which provides lease-free business units for local companies, held an exhibition of its work, and also gave some of its 50-plus tenants the opportunity to display their work.

Roger Pipe, the trust's general manager, said: "We've had lots of old friends celebrate our anniversary with us."

He described the event, held at Plymouth Albion's Brickfields home in Devonport, as uplifting.

"It's also a chance to look ahead at the next 10 years," he said.

Father Sam Philpott, chairman of the Millfields Trust and a parish priest in Stonehouse for 32 years, said: "Millfields has established itself as a highly successful community business and the credit must go to Roger and his staff."

The Trust was set up in 1999 to enable Stonehouse people to contribute to regeneration of the old St Peter Ward.

Rental income from the trust's business units in the Millfields and the HQ building in Union Street are put towards projects which will benefit the Stonehouse community.

As a not-for-profit organisation, all profits are ploughed back to support the economic development of Stonehouse.

In 10 years the trust has reinvested £500,000 in the community, including a business centre which will be held for the people of Stonehouse in perpetuity.

Currently the trust provides a home for more than 50 businesses, ranging from an internet-based furniture retailer to a catering company.

It has premises at the former naval college site at the Millfields, including Creykes Court and Mary Seacole Road, and the HQ building in Union Street, bought for £1 from Plymouth City Council and handed over in 2002.

Among those exhibiting at the Brickfields event was Roger Charles, whose company, British Beds Worldwide, started out as an idea among a few friends who returned from a holiday in France with aching backs five years ago.

They realised there was a market for British beds and started exporting, first to France, then across Europe.

In the last couple of years the Plymouth company has sold and shipped beds or mattresses to Sydney, Singapore, Canada and West Africa.

Mr Charles said: "We were three directors working from home and it was too small for us.

"We said, 'We need a start-up unit for three' and that's what they gave us.

"Millfields have been really good. We've had business back-up on hand and that helped us to continue our expansion," he said.

Having other small businesses on hand also helped, he said, and in turn helped those companies.

Mr Charles said: "We're very dependent on our search engine optimisation and eventually someone said we had to promote our website.

"Over the wall from us in the HQ building was Mark Field, of DM Informatics, and now we've got him on board as a consultant."

British Beds has now moved out of its unit but continues to use the Millfields Trust as a 'virtual office'.

Mr Charles also praised the trust's ethos of supporting the community and ploughing profits back into Stonehouse.

Another exhibitor at the event was Nick Warren, whose company N9 Design has been at the Millfields for 18 months, after he decided to take the step from self-employment to hiring employees.

"Millfields is one of the few places that cater for very small businesses," he said. "Most offices just aren't worth it.

"This is a good event because we're networking. We'll always use other local businesses if they're right for the job. It makes sense and keeps the work local. We support each other.

"We can compete with large firms because we can use freelancers and therefore we can be more flexible, and we do that from a very small business unit."

In the past 10 years 175 businesses have passed through the Millfields Trust's units, and Mr Pipe said the plan for the next decade was to expand that business base.

"The next 10 years will see us expand our asset base so we can do more of the things we do," he said.

"We could have lots more businesses based in Stonehouse and we'd like bigger units so that when businesses grow, they can stay with us."