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Coventry accounting firm Cheylesmore has doubled its staff numbers after receiving a grant to move into a state-of-the-art office.
The firm was awarded a £50,000 grant that went towards the £280,000 cost of securing the two-storey 320 square foot office space.
The money was received as part of the Coventry and Warwickshire Business Support Programme from the European Regional Development Fund.
Cheylesmore was founded in July 2020 by Manny Rai, who worked for big firms like KPMG and Goldman Sachs, and was started from his home office.
Focusing primarily on SMEs with turnovers of over £100,000 or more the company quickly grew and in December 2022 it moved into a stand-alone office at Edison Buildings in Electric Wharf, Coventry.
Rai said: “The number one reason we couldn’t push on is because we didn’t have
anywhere to put new members of staff. I’ve gone from a small business with four or five
people that I could manage directly to needing a middle manager for us to get to 10.
“I wasn’t going to get someone of real quality working from my home! You’;ve got to have a place where they feel proud to come in. Since moving into the Edison Buildings, we’ve taken on five new recruits.
He added: “Gaining the grant has helped massively and fast tracked this by at least two years. It’s a multiplier effect, it’;s going to lead to a lot more jobs coming out.That’s what this grant has done, without it we wouldn’t have anywhere to put all our staff. We’ve repaid the investment already in terms of the amount of people we have hired since moving in.
“Before when you Google mapped the business you saw my house, now you Google map us, you see this amazing office. With the pandemic over and people now wanting to meet face-to-face, we want to see people and have them come into the office.”
