Lloyds Bank commits a further £3bn to the manufacturing sector

The announcement follows an earlier commitment by the group to lend more than £4 billion to manufacturers between 2013 and 2017, a target it met six months early.

The pledge is one of the commitments in the group’s ‘Helping Britain Prosper’ plan, will be used to support businesses of all sizes in the sector and will be used to support business growth, exporting, equipment and facility upgrades, and wider investment.

Dave Atkinson, UK head of manufacturing at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: “As a major supporter of the manufacturing sector we recognise its importance to the success and growth of the UK economy. This commitment over three years reaffirms our support for the many thousands of manufacturing firms that are driving innovation, job creation and UK exports.

“With more than 13,000 manufacturing clients, we recognise that each manufacturer has a unique set of needs and ambitions – be it to hire more people, manage their working capital better, or invest to drive productivity and growth. We’re on hand to support all firms, whatever their objective.”

As part of the plan Lloyds has also committed to developing the next generation of manufacturing engineers and is continuing to invest £1 million a year at the Lloyds Bank Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre in Coventry which will support a further 500 apprentices, graduates and engineers by 2020.

In recent months Lloyds Bank has supported a number of manufacturing firms to achieve their objectives. One example is FEI Foods which it supported with a £19 million funding facility that helped it to open a new site in Swansea. The group has also worked with Heck Sausages with a £3.5 million funding package that allowed them to open new premise and create more than 75 new jobs.

Lloyds Bank www.lloydsbank.com