Mallusk Enterprise Park full year results: 2022 announced at Annual General Meeting.
The social and economic impact of social enterprise, Mallusk Enterprise Park, which was set up in 1992 to help businesses launch and grow across the Newtownabbey area, was celebrated at their Annual General Meeting.
The Annual General Meeting was held on Tuesday 23 May inside the latest investment zone by the local enterprise agency – Mallusk Enterprise Hub, which provides co-working space, huddle rooms (private 2 to 3 person meeting rooms) as well as a conference, boardroom and training venue for up to 40 delegates.
The business park, which operates as one of a number of local enterprise agencies that can be found right across Northern Ireland, is home to 64 businesses which provide employment for 258 people. The commercial location, north of Belfast and just off the M2 at Mallusk, continues to be attractive to small and medium sized businesses wishing to locate in Northern Ireland and as such it boasted a 99.41% average occupancy rate throughout 2022.
Highlights from the twelve month reporting period included the provision of 1,065.5 hours of business start up mentoring support and 1,721 hours of business growth mentoring support. The support programmes delivered by the business advice team at Mallusk Enterprise Park provided paid work to a bank of 79 expert Mentors and Trainers ensuring that local businesses and social enterprises could avail of experience and expertise outside of their own skills base.
The business and social enterprise start up and growth support provided by Mallusk Enterprise Park led to the creation of 176 jobs for the local area.
The social enterprise, now in its 30th year, is governed by a voluntary board of directors and the pro bono activity by directors and staff in support of local economic development, including entrepreneurship support for Young Enterprise NI in primary and secondary schools was lauded alongside an expression of gratitude for the valued funders of each of the programmes managed by the dedicated team at Mallusk Enterprise Park.
To help the enterprise agency achieve its organisational objectives Mallusk Enterprise Park facilitated a number of business and social enterprise start up and growth support programmes throughout the course of 2022 including the business start up coaching programme, the start her up programme, the Northern Ireland business start up programme, the Women in Business NI Yes You Can ‘Explore It’ programme, the social enterprise programme, the financial resilience programme and the OPTIMAL business growth support programme. In addition the local enterprise agency referred eligible suitable entrepreneurs to the start up loans support administered by Enterprise NI.
Innovative additions in 2022 included the launch of the Mallusk Enterprise Hub, a £200,000 investment that provides workspace, suitable to hybrid working such as co-working desks, private huddle rooms (small two to three person meeting rooms) and a large meeting, boardroom and training room.
Mallusk Enterprise Park also launched the inaugural Mallusk Christmas Market which took place on 1 December 2022. This flagship event supported local businesses to trade, enabled networking and the promotion of local entrepreneurs and their wares, raised funds for a number of local charities and provided local children with the opportunity to visit Santa for free.
CEO of Mallusk Enterprise Park and secretary of the board Emma Garrett extended her thanks to Chairperson Iain Patterson, Vice Chairperson Mark Owen Spence, board members, Steven Pollard and Zara Webber, the business advice, property and admin support team and the army of expert Mentors, Trainers and Marketing Angels that work alongside Mallusk Enterprise Park to support the local businesses and social enterprises of Antrim and Newtownabbey.
She said:
“The valuable work of Mallusk Enterprise Park is only possible through the dedication and hard work of our voluntary Directors, our committed team and our enviable bank of expert Mentors and Trainers.
The positive impact of our local enterprise agency on the local economy is testament to the innovative approach that we take, year after year, and in this our thirtieth year, we are proud to be more than just a business park for the benefit of so many local businesses, social enterprises and freelancers.
Our successful entrepreneurs and our budding entrepreneurs are critical to economic prosperity and we look forward to continuing our worthwhile work into a fourth decade.
The Annual Report and Financial Statements can be found online.
