Scottish Enterprise Annual Report & Accounts 2010-11

During the year we worked directly with over 9,000 companies to help make their businesses stronger and respond to new market opportunities both here and overseas.

Highlights included:

• The doubling of turnover growth in the businesses SE works with most closely from £367million to £790million

• The work of the High-Growth Start-Up Unit in assisting 18 companies with high growth potential – these are companies which have the potential to grow into large, global companies relatively quickly and have a significant impact on our economy

• 1100 companies reporting a significant improvement to their business as a result of business efficiency, innovation and internationalisation support

• Investments of £23million by SE in 125 deals through equity investment funds, alongside private sector investment of £54million – this total investment of £77million represented a return of over 1:2 on SE’s investments

• A strong return on investments in developing Scotland’s infrastructure – particularly in renewables, alongside partners. Every £1 of investment from SE leveraged £3.20 from partners, the highest return achieved since 2006/7.

These successes build on other recent announcements including the news that the Scottish Manufacturing Service (SMAS) helped Scotland’s manufacturing sector generate over £21million of productivity benefits in 2010/11. During the same period SE also helped to safeguard or create over 7,000 jobs though its RSA support.

SE also highlighted that it had continued to generate new efficiencies from its business, reducing its management expenditure by 8 per cent over the past year. This included savings of almost £2 million from a leadership restructure, which cut 20 director posts across the organisation.

Scottish Enterprise chief executive Lena Wilson, said: “We know trading conditions have proved challenging for many of our customers but these results show how much we can help companies not only respond to these challenges but in many cases, grow.

“With economic issues more in the news than ever, we need to continue to focus on where we can help companies generate real value for their business. This includes helping them to reduce operating costs, develop new products and work more overseas, ultimately creating more and better jobs for Scotland.”

To coincide with the publication of the annual report and accounts Scottish Enterprise has launched an online video annual review which further highlights how the organisation is delivering for the Scottish economy.