THE Government’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme has been used to back a £4m management buy-out at a Speke laboratory equipment manufacturer.

A team at the Co-operative Bank’s Liverpool corporate banking centre secured cover for £1m – the maximum allowed under the scheme – to enable directors, led by managing director Chris Eccles, to buy ChargePoint Technology from the previous owners.

The firm, formerly known as Powder Systems and based on the Estuary Commerce Park, employs 18 staff making highly engineered valves for the international pharmaceutical, biotechnology, food and chemical industries.

ChargePoint’s new management team said the deal will enable them to invest in new products and markets world-wide.

This is the first business to receive EFG funding from the bank's Liverpool centre.

The £1.3bn scheme was introduced to help firms access the investment they need to grow in the current business climate and works by the Government guaranteeing loans of between £1,000 and £1m by approved lenders to viable businesses.

Chris Eccles said: “Since developing the ChargePoint valve, the company has gone from strength to strength and, despite the current financial crisis, we are continuing to grow and expand.

“Excellent relationships with our local supply chain have enabled us to continue to export over 75% of our production in a competitive global market.

“Even with our strong track record, the international credit crisis meant we found it hard to secure the funds we needed to invest in developing our business model.

“However, the underwriting provided by the EFG scheme meant we were able to access all the funding we required to ensure that ChargePoint continues to prosper.”

Dave Matthews, senior business development manager at the Co-op, said he was pleased to be able to assist ChargePoint.