Melton ranked second best place in the UK for new business start-ups

A study for eBay UK found that Melton has the second highest survival rate for business start-ups of any local authority, with 53 per cent of start-ups found to survive for five years or more compared with a UK average of 42 per cent.

The only place in the UK found to have a higher start-up survival rate than Melton was the Shetland Islands in Scotland (56 per cent).

Melton town centre manager Shelagh Core welcomed the findings. She said: “In business surveys conducted in 2015, 64 per cent of businesses had been trading in the town for more than 10 years.

“2014 saw the start of 13 new businesses in the town centre, 11 of which were independents. This is reflective too of the high independent business longevity within the town centre, with 58 per cent of businesses being within the town centre for more than 10 years (60 per cent nationally) and 24 per cent between five and 10 years (21 per cent nationally).

“Melton has a strong unique selling point (USP) as the Rural Capital Of Food, attracting a high number of visitors and tourists. It is also unique in its high number of independents, which represent 65 per cent of Melton’s businesses and the majority of Melton’s start-ups over the last 10 years. In comparison, nationally, in large towns independents represent 45 per cent.”

Mrs Core added that Melton’s current shop vacancy rate is 4.5 per cent compared to the national vacancy rate of 10.3 per cent and an East Midlands vacancy average of 9.6 per cent.

Many of Melton’s new start-up companies have moved onto the Pera Business Park site on Nottingham Road.

Carrie Potter, sales and marketing manager for Pera Business Park, said: “This year in particular has seen an increase in start-up companies moving onto our site, with a combination of the owners already living in Melton or re-locating from outside of the town to launch their businesses here.

“We want to encourage further start-up companies onto the park and with this in mind have started offering an office share option. The offices available are fully serviced complete with furniture and are available on a month by month basis. With no deposit or application fee the offices are perfect for those wanting to move in straight away without worrying about upfront costs – plus they can split the rental bill with fellow occupants!”

One of the new start-up companies which moved into the business park this week, on an office share basis, is Tracey Wright Training and Marketing.

Tracey said: “I’m not surprised Melton has such a high survival rate for new business start-ups. If you look at Pera, for example, there are about 52 small businesses working out of there. It’s a fantastic facility.

“If you’re a new start-up perhaps you can’t afford to work out of London or other big cities and you have look further afield. Some of the smaller towns do have a lot to offer. I’m quite happy to be in the Melton area, I have everything here on my doorstep.”

According to eBay’s analysis of figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Rutland was also in the top 10 local authority areas with the highest rates of business survival, ranking in seventh place (51 per cent survival rate).

For more information on office and industrial space at Pera Business Park visit www.perabusinesspark.co.uk or contact Carrie Potter on (01664) 501485 or email [email protected]