East Renfrewshire businesses set to accelerate growth

Published 27 August 2025

Funded through the Council's economic development local discretionary fund and led by Business Gateway East Renfrewshire, the programme aims to help businesses achieve a turnover of £250,000 and create at least one new job opportunity per business within three years, while focussing on technological adoption, sustainability and strengthening the local entrepreneurial landscape. The participating businesses are provided with tailored support and expert advice, as well as access to co-working space within the Greenlaw Works in Newton Mearns.

East Renfrewshire Accelerator offers the businesses a wide range of training from Business Gateway staff and industry experts covering: networking, communications, strategy development, procurement and sales. This is the second group of businesses to join the programme, after the success achieved by the first group.

The businesses participating in the Accelerator are:

• Ready Sweat Go Ltd - an e-commerce brand offering premium health and wellness products for active lifestyles, particularly tailored to those engaged in endurance and ultra-endurance sports.
• NELL Recruitment - an independent agency specialising in luxury hospitality recruitment across the UK and Ireland, serving country hotels in sectors such as food & beverage, front of house, and housekeeping
• Slangevar Property Ltd - a property refurbishment company specialising in revitalising rundown properties for rental or resale
• Totnosh - delivers interactive, educational cooking classes to schools, nurseries, and community groups
• Acer Renewables - a start-up focused on the design, supply, installation, and commissioning of renewable technologies such as solar PV, battery storage, and air source heat pumps.
• HR Dept South Glasgow - provides outsourced HR consultancy services to SMEs. Offering retained, pay-as-you-go, and project-based support, the business helps 
• Blanboz Limited - a technical consultancy specialising in Battery Energy Storage Systems, offering comprehensive advisory services across all stages of project lifecycles. 
• Wingspan - a virtual assistant business offering project management and operational support across diverse industries including HR, tech, finance and hospitality.

Council Leader Owen O'Donnell said: 'When we launched the first East Renfrewshire Accelerator 18 months ago, we did so with a strong belief in the potential of our local businesses - and that belief has been fully justified. That first group of nine businesses have gone on to achieve a combined projected turnover of nearly £4 million, with over 30 new jobs created right here in East Renfrewshire. So as we welcome a new group of ambitious local entrepreneurs into this space, we do so with great confidence in what's possible. I wish all eight businesses the very best for the journey ahead.'

Caroline O'Donnell from NELL Recruitment spoke about participating in year two: 'My business is based in East Renfrewshire and I've seen the growth that the businesses experienced in the first year of ERA, so I am delighted to be taking part. My business has been growing over recent times, so as part of this programme, I am keen to build solid foundations so that I am ready for further growth as well as recruiting someone to share the workload with.'

Katie Bell from the HR Dept South Glasgow added: 'I recently took part in another Business Gateway programme and it gave me the confidence to apply to ERA; it just seems like a really great opportunity to access support but also be part of a community that people running small businesses sometimes miss out on. Over the next year I hope to see further business growth and increased turnover, all of which will help broaden the impact we can have on small businesses locally.'

Councillor Danny Devlin, Convener for Environment and Housing, said: 'East Renfrewshire enjoys a varied and wide-ranging local economy, from tech and innovation, to hospitality, retail, health and financial services - all of which brings employment to the area, as well as investment and increased visitors, so it's vital that we continue to support our local economy and this programme is doing just that. It is great to hear about the success from year one and I'm in no doubt we're in for more of the same in year two. Good luck to everyone involved in cohort two.'