Early stage businesses in Fermanagh to invest over £1m

Three early stage Fermanagh SME’s Avrio Environmental Management Ltd, PTG HK Ltd and Gmooth Construction Ltd, are collectively investing over £1million and creating 15 new jobs in the local area. 

Meeting with the companies via Zoom to hear more about the investments, Invest Northern Ireland CEO, Kevin Holland said: “It was a pleasure to meet with Avrio, PTG HK Ltd and Gmooth Construction today. We actively support SME’s as a strong core of our economy with 90 per cent of Invest NI offers made to SME businesses. It was wonderful to hear how Invest NI’s Western regional team is helping these early stage businesses to thrive. Mentorship is a crucial part of an entrepreneur’s growth and development and our Western Regional team has been successful in building strategic partnerships with these companies. The three companies are making innovation-focused investments of over £1million at a crucial time for our economy.

“Invest NI offers a wide range of support designed to help businesses grow and we will continue to work in partnership with Fermanagh & Omagh District Council to stimulate further growth, particularly at such a critical time in our economic recovery.”

Invest NI’s wide range of business support can be explored at investni.com. 

Combined, the companies will create 15 jobs which will contribute over £400,000 in additional annual salaries to the local economy. Invest NI has offered over £83,000 of support to assist in the creation of the jobs, R&D and marketing activities.

PTG has recently secured a trial with Atlantic Aviation at Shannon Airport for its innovative software driven E-locker solution for the aviation servicing sector. Paul Sandilands, Managing Director of PTG HK Ltd said: “We have used Invest NI’s R&D support to develop our software integrated E-locker solution. From inception, our focus has been to streamline processes and deliver efficiency for the aviation servicing sector. It is an exciting time for our business, since first contacting Invest NI with our concept to now having market-ready technology. In the near future, we intend to begin recruitment for four new staff and have secured our first pilot installation with Atlantic Aviation to trial our solution in early 2021. From helping us to develop our product, to supporting our team expansion, Invest NI’s support has been invaluable.”

Sales of Gmooth’s garden office accommodation are increasing, in part due to COVID-19. Paul McAloon, MD of Gmooth Construction said: “We have been overwhelmed with the demand for our garden home offices and recreational rooms which has been fuelled further by COVID-19 as employees work from home and businesses look to help their employees adapt. We’re incredibly grateful to Invest NI for its support to grow our business with the addition of seven new staff to our team. These new staff will help us build on growing demand for our garden office accommodation and will help us refocus our attention on growing our business in new markets.”

Avrio has grown steadily over the past six months and has secured several new contracts in the Republic of Ireland. Fergal Maguire, Director of Avrio said:

"We are a consultancy business offering environmental consultancy across a wide range of sectors. Our strategy is to achieve lower costs, improve environmental practices and brand image for clients, while decreasing their environmental impact. We began trading just as the first lockdown began in March and since then our business has grown from strength to strength. At such an early stage in our development, Invest NI’s support to bring on four new team members will help us to fulfil increasing demand for our service, increase our turnover and ultimately drive exports.”

Invest NI’s R&D support is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the Investment for Growth & Jobs Northern Ireland (2014-2020) Programme.