Barnsley: How local passionate people turn the dial on enterprise
This week saw June’s SME Safari to Barnsley in South Yorkshire. A town with which I have history as a decade ago my former business won a contract with the Digital Media Centre – fast forward to 2026 and how incredible to see development in the town and have opportunity to meet entrepreneurs driving opportunity for the area. Thank you to Dolly’s Desserts, GBAC Ltd, Naylor, Wool Couture Company, PitStop Productions and Binary Forge for your time. These were the key takeaways:
Talent magnet – there was plenty of talk on attracting and retaining top talent; from GBAC who have an orderly succession plan that sees company directors share ownership in the business, through to Dolly’s who are employing as many ‘live presenters’ as they are store staff with their desserts selling well when cooked live on TikTok and shipped to customers across the UK. John Sanderson from Pitstop Productions spoke about how he has managed to attract audio sound talent from across the globe, with an offer of quality work and life in the area. Edward Naylor, who is the fourth generation running a family business, spoke proudly of a young apprentice taken on who is now running a significant division of the company, and how he would like to see more such ‘strivers’ applying for current roles. All founders, as per previous SME Safaris, quoted increases in National Insurance, minimum wage, and employee rights, as additional challenges for their business.
Attitude to finance – with this being the seventh SME Safari, common themes become clear and one is the difference in approach to raising finance. Many founders met have referred to taking on debt as a ‘slippery slope’ whilst others plan for growth with secured finance at the heart of their ambitions. We are currently seeing in the market a 50% reduction in the number of small businesses taking on finance and although there is structural work to be done to improve this such as lenders being prepared to lend without security and personal guarantees, it also shows a large part of the transaction of raising funds is connected to the psychology and mindset of a founder.
Succession & tax planning – interesting points were made at GBAC on the ‘Silver Tsunami’ which is the term given for the number of businesses set for exit with research showing ‘almost a third (30%) of SME owners plan to sell part or all of their business within the next two years’ which offers merger & acquisition opportunities if succession planning is in place. Other well-made points were on the value of tax-free allowances for employees such as allowable cost for Christmas parties and reward payments, which have not been changed for a decade.
Local authority advocates – every business met gave due regard and respect to the support they had received from Barnsley Council, in particular to our hosts of the day, Tracey Johnson and Ben Hawley. Notable quotes were ‘Our whole office burnt down and within two days, Tracey found us a space from which to operate’, ‘The team at the council has always supported me, not interfered’ and ‘‘We could not have done it without our council-funded business adviser.’
It goes to show that when you mix together committed entrepreneurs with passionate local people who want to make a difference, the result you get is a town like Barnsley. A place that has been nominated the UK’s first Tech Town, that is expanding the number of buildings that accommodate bright new start-ups, and that seeks out new opportunity at every turn.
Go, Barnsley! And thank you for letting us witness at first hand your growing and enterprising town.
Emma