Duo’s new home will be extra special

AHAIRDRESSER and beautician have expanded their business thanks to an innovative small business scheme.

Samantha Collins and her business partner Stacy Cummins operated their business, Simply Special, from a rented room above a shop in Yorkshire Street for 10 years.

Now they’ve got a place they can call their own, after moving into a dedicated unit in Baillie Street.

The pair took advantage of the council’s business rates discount scheme, which offers businesses moving into selected empty units in Rochdale, Heywood and Middleton town centres 80 per cent off their rates in their first year of trading, with further reductions in years two and three.

The business also benefitted from a £5,000 grant towards building improvements, including a new roof, a damp proof course, new toilets and a new sign.

Samantha said: “Baillie Street is a great thoroughfare and close to a lot of the town centre’s regeneration projects, like the river reopening and the planned new shopping centre. We’ve had a number of new customers coming in to enquire about our services, as they hadn’t seen us before, so we’re already looking at taking on two new members of staff.

“The rates on this unit were really high, so we would have had to look elsewhere had we not got council support. We’ve spent around £25,000 renovating our new shop too, so the £5,000 grant also made a big difference. We’ve bought our new unit outright and spent a lot of our own money doing it up.”

Councillor Richard Farnell, Leader of Rochdale Borough Council, said: “Our rates sale, the most generous of its kind in the country, has been a great success, bringing in fantastic new businesses, like CockaDoodleMoo, Shoemaster and Lavinia Rose Bridal. Now, to make it even easier for people to invest and create jobs, we’ve added our shop improvement grant, and the new businesses keep coming.”

For details about the discount scheme and the shop improvement grant see rochdale.gov.uk/ smallbizhelp ●●Outside the new salon are (from the left): Richard Farnell, leader of Rochdale council, apprentice Alicia Eyres, Mark Foxley, Rochdale Town Centre manager and owner Samantha Collins