Business joy as towns break start-ups record

While Telford enjoyed its busiest ever April and May for the number of new company registrations, more companies were established in April than in the same month of any previous year on record.

Telford saw 51 new companies established in April, and 47 in May, while 65 businesses were registered in Shrewsbury during May.

The research was carried out by Duport.co.uk, which surveys different towns’ registrations through Companies House, and also showed Shropshire towns were enjoying net growth in the number of new firms being launched, as start-ups outstripped company closures over the second quarter.

Peter Valaitis, managing director of Duport.co.uk, said: “The entrepreneurs in Telford look as though they are building a solid platform for economic stability.

“As well as two consecutive months of breaking formations records, it’s also encouraging to see there are fewer businesses going bust in the area – which just goes to show that Telford is fighting its way out of recession.”

In Telford, 148 companies were dissolved between January and June, a 15 per cent decrease on the first half of 2011, and a larger drop than the nine per cent experienced across the UK.

Shrewsbury saw 172 companies close during the first half of the year, a three per cent increase on the previous year, and suffered particularly in the second quarter when 106 firms were dissolved – a 43.2 per cent rise on the year before.

However, 339 new companies were established during the same period, a rise of 1.8 per cent on 2011, and a net gain of 167, a slight increase on the previous year that is eclipsed by national figures which have seen a 58.6 per cent increase in new firms to more than 100,000.