Reax to create jobs with five-figure funding

Blackpool based Reax will begin a five-year growth plan including creating new jobs after securing £35,000 of funding from NPIF - BFS & MSIF Microfinance.

Reax Limited is a specialist access and rescue training provider, based at an industrial simulation training facility in the seaside town.

The firm agreed the funding deal with NPIF - BFS & MSIF Microfinance, a product fund managed by GC Business Finance GC Business Finance in partnership with MSIF and part of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund.

Reax was launched in 2014 and is run by former emergency services personnel including Pete Langley and Keith Parmley.

The company employs a skilled group of former and current emergency services personnel from the fire service, specialist rope rescue units, North West ambulance service paramedic teams, urban search and rescue teams and mountain rescue.

Reax provides training to the emergency services, utility, telecoms, construction and engineering sectors, specialising in a range of confined space courses, industrial simulation, rescue training, first aid courses and equipment sales.

The £35,000 loan from NPIF will be used to create at least five new full-time jobs and fund Reax’s exhibition and event attendance to raise awareness of the training programmes. The funds will also be invested in further development of Reax’s training facility, which already features purpose-built areas to recreate scenarios faced working at height, in confined spaces and industrial and rescue situations.

Pete Langley, director at Reax, said: “Since we launched four years ago, our specialist training services have been in high demand across the North West. This funding from GC Business Finance and NPIF will enable us to develop our current facilities and to recruit more rescue and first aid and trauma trainers, ensuring that we are able to continue to expand and improve our business.

“Across our growing team, we have faced every situation and danger that you might expect to encounter in challenging work and rescue situations over many years in the emergency services. This expertise means that we are able to work with and train individuals and companies – from emergency services teams to utilities companies and telecom firms - to ensure that they won’t face the dangers that we have.”

Mark Gibbons, senior loan manager at GCBF, added: “Pete, Keith and their team have developed their business at an admirable pace over the past few years, growing to over 70 clients in a very short time. “When Reax was introduced to us by Prakash Patel of A2F earlier this year, they were considering a number of growth and new business prospects that required investment and expansion. By providing the £35,000 they needed to progress these opportunities, we were able to work with Reax to take the company to the next level, as both a service provider and a valued employer in the Lancashire area."