Lord Henley opens new Business Centre in Kendal

4th March 2011

L to R: Peter Hensman, CREA Chairman; Sylvia Emmott, South Lakes District Council (SLDC) Chairman; Lynne Fox, CREA Chief Executive; Lord Henley (being presented with a folder of case studies on businesses CREA has helped).

L to R: Peter Hensman, CREA Chairman; Sylvia Emmott, SLDC Chairman; Lord Henley; Lynne Fox, CREA Chief Executive.

On Friday 4th March Lord Henley, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Government Spokesperson for Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Government Spokesperson for Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, officially opened the new Cumbria Rural Enterprise Agency (CREA) Business Centre at Kendal.

The Business Centre, built by local builders Cox and Allen, features Incubator Units--offices that new businesses may lease to grow their businesses--as well as Conference Facilities catering for up to 80 people, meeting rooms and offices for CREA’s staff. Similar facilities have been available in Eden for some time, and CREA is pleased to finally be able to extend this support to the South Lakes area.

Lord Henley said, “the Government is committed to supporting the rural economy by helping budding enterprises flourish in today’s market. I am delighted to see this vital business resource open for the benefit of Kendal and the south Cumbria region. CREA does important work and I look forward to seeing their efforts generating new employment opportunities throughout the North West.”

Lynne Fox, Chief Executive of CREA, said, “CREA has been supporting new and existing businesses in South Lakeland for over 25 years. We are now making a long term commitment to continue that support and are delighted to be able to offer modern offices for small businesses and meeting rooms as well as a fully accessible base to continue to deliver our business support services.”

CREA began in 1984 in Kendal, offering business advice to people in Eden and South Lakeland that wanted to become self-employed. It then grew to three staff members, extending its services to any business needing advice or training. Later it became a Partner in Business Link Cumbria, which became recognised as the local delivery company for Eden and South Lakeland. During this time it also began offering support to farmers throughout the county. CREA then opened its Penrith site and expanded its services to include projects to help with the environment and food and drink. More recently CREA have built a Food Technology Centre at Penrith, with six professional kitchens that support food businesses in a continuation of the Business Incubator concept.