Greater Manchester business owner Paul Wilks, Director of Jigsaw Controls and kTech Manufacturing, has been offered a lifeline against rising raw materials costs with a successful R&D claim through Research and Development Specialists LTD.
The claim comes after a 300% rise in raw material costs in the last 12-months hit the businesses cash-flow as the price of plastic soared, and will inject a combined value of over £18,500 into the companies to aid future development and clear the impact of COVID-19, despite taking less than 3 hours of Paul’s time and saving him 3-days of business hours.
Jigsaw Controls, a bespoke electrical control systems company that specialise in developing solutions to customers’ problems stand to receive a £14240 cash injection and kTech Manufacturing, a leading manufacturer of electrical wiring and accessories, stand to get a £4460 injection of cash into the businesses from successful R&D tax claims with fellow Greater Manchester business RDS.
Company Director Paul has seen the cost of raw plastics rise from £200 per tonne to over £800 per tonne, in the last 12 months. This, coupled with expected delivery dates going from six weeks to nearly six months, has put a squeeze on the expected growth, however, a chance meeting at an event has helped to ease business fears.
Here Paul explains more about the process and how it has helped his company:
“The RDS process was much slicker and required much less of my time” begins Paul, who became aware of RDS when he met business development manager, Chris Cunnane at a Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce social event earlier in the year.
“My previous claim, with a different R&D company, took nearly 20 hours of my time, which as a business owner I just don’t have readily available. This made me very sceptical about going through the R&D claim again, however, after speaking with Chris at the GMCC event, it became clear very quickly how different RDS were. As a comparison going through two claims with RDS took a total of three hours, saving me nearly 3-days.”
“Chris and his colleagues spent the time getting to know both Jigsaw Controls and kTech, understanding the R&D we had done, this resulted in the time saving as they did a lot of the paperwork for me, whereas previously I spent endless hours on phone calls explaining about the R&D and my businesses. The variety of experts they have in the business meant they quickly grasped and understood what R&D we were doing”.
Paul continues “In happier times the money received back from HMRC would have been put back into the business to grow it further, however with the impact of COVID still being felt the invaluable monies this time will be used to reduce the debts accrued during COVID, allowing us to start really planning for 2023 and beyond.”
The HMRC tax incentive is available to any company no matter the size. It rewards those undertaking original research and development with tax credits that can either be deducted from corporation tax or if a claim is historical, claimed back as a repayment of overpaid corporation tax. The aim of the Government scheme is to stimulate innovation and boost the economy.
Mark Joyner, MD of RDS, added: “We love working with and helping fellow businesses in the North-West, especially ones that have been impacted by rising raw material costs or COVID-19. Greater Manchester has always been a main hub for manufacturing and by supporting businesses who undertake research and development as well as bring jobs to the local economy we feel like we are doing a little bit to help keep the local economy growing.”
“At kTech Manufacturing, Paul and his team have developed products that are easier, simpler and safer to use, then with further R&D have found ways to produce these at a cost-efficient price for the end-user. This is R&D working at its best and demonstrates exactly what the scheme was set up to achieve.
“There are so many companies out there like Paul’s that could be benefitting from a cash injection. At RDS, we look to make sometimes complex processes much simpler, giving business owners like Paul peace of mind and saving them valuable time”.
For more information visit https://randdspecialists.co.uk/ or call 0161 823 5281.
