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• Firms include Burt’s Snacks, Crème d’Or, Eat Natural, Franklin and Sons Ltd, Millennium Group, Taylors of Harrogate and Tiptree
• Trade mission seeks to open up opportunities in cuisine market worth over $6bn

Swindon-based Excalibur Communications, a leading UK telecoms and IT solutions service provider, has undergone a Management Buy-Out (MBO) supported with significant funding from Santander Corporate & Commercial.

The Ship on the Shore, the renowned seafood restaurant in Leith, Edinburgh, has completed the redevelopment of a new bar area after receiving £550,000 funding from Santander Business Banking.

• Santander is the first major UK High Street bank to offer Fitbit Pay
• Available to personal and business Santander debit and credit card customers
• Can be used with Fitbit Versa and Fitbit Ionic

Community arts charity Inter-Action MK has received a grant of £5,000 to fund workshops in schools across Milton Keynes, with the aim of educating young people on democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, respect and tolerance of those with different faiths.

Welsh Hearts has received £5,000 to fund the installation of defibrillators in public places across Wales. The aim in providing public access defibrillators is to support local communities in dramatically improving the chances of survival for a person who is having a heart attack.

Wells Community Hospital Trust has received £5,000 in funding to go towards a new outreach gardening programme delivered by the Nurture Project, a group that uses horticulture to improve the mental health of its participants. The project aims to provide year-round therapy sessions to adults with mild to moderate mental health issues, using supervised gardening to promote adult mental and physical wellbeing in a safe and friendly environment.

On 25^th April 2018, Santander UK will officially open its newly designed and refurbished branch on 24 Market Street, Ashby de la Zouch.

• Santander Mortgages identifies three tribes of first-time buyer, each with a bold approach to saving for a property deposit
• Alternatives: Over 40 per cent of first-time buyers turn to alternative finance to fund their deposit, including crowdfunding, selling raffle tickets and ‘bonds’
• Boomerangers: More than a third (38 per cent) of first-time buyers opt to move back home for two years to save for a deposit, with a further 15 per cent willing to stay up to five years to save more
• Minimalists: Almost two million Brits planning to buy a property are willing to switch nutritious meals for pot noodles in a desperate bid to save funds

Citizens Advice Tunbridge Wells & District has received £5,000 to fund budgeting and money management sessions for vulnerable people in the area.

• As well as being faster, the service also shows customers the exact amount that will be received in the destination currency before they make the transfer. 
• The new service, known as ‘Santander One Pay FX’, makes it possible for customers to complete international transfers on the same day in many cases or by the next day. 
• It is now available for retail customers in Spain from their online banking app or Supernet, and UK, Brazil and Poland, with the bank expecting to roll the service out across more countries in the coming months. 

The Great Commission Society has received £5,000 to fund a project that aims to provide help and support to vulnerable young people, improve self-esteem, and dissuade them from engaging in antisocial behaviour. Those benefiting from this project are students aged between 11 and 16 based in Liverpool.

• 72 per cent of parents say their children understand the importance of saving money to plan for the future
• Almost a third (32 per cent) of parents wish they had been taught about saving by their parents
• 41 per cent of money given to children is put into savings 

Tamworth-based The Malted Waffle Company, the UK’s leading waffle machine and waffle-based food product manufacturer, has secured funding from Santander Business Banking to help it start to export into international markets including Europe and the United Arab Emirates. The business is looking to capitalise on the strong momentum it has in the UK to expand overseas and capture new growth opportunities.

• New report from Santander UK and EEF on the UK’s mechanical equipment industry concludes that growth will come from intelligent manufacturing, ‘4IR’ technologies, and renewable energy demand
• Other near-term opportunities include upscaling the ‘after sales and service’ market, fulfilling demand from the global construction equipment industry, and new funding models such as leasing
• Export opportunities key for the sector with over half the demand generated from overseas sales

Eleven of the Midlands’ aerospace cluster fastest -growing SMEs visited Rzeszow, Poland, for a trade mission from 16-19 April organised by Santander UK and the Midlands Aerospace Alliance.

Santander Corporate & Commercial has appointed Mark Challis as a Director, Financial Sponsors team.

• Two thirds (65%) of firms are confident their businesses will grow over the next three years; more than a quarter (28%) are very confident 
• The latest Santander Trade Barometer¹ found greater confidence among firms that export: 66% compared to 61% for firms that are just focused on the UK 
• More than half (52%) of firms that describe themselves as ‘international’ say their business has improved over the past year

Oldham-based HTF Transport Ltd, a leading haulage and logistics firm, has expanded its fleet with the purchase of a truck-mounted Palfinger Crane following a significant asset finance facility with Santander Business Banking. The vehicle will allow HTF to support an increased number of clients with a broader range of transport solutions, in line with the company’s UK growth strategy.

Acorns Children’s Hospice has received £5,000 to fund support groups for young people with life limiting and life threatening conditions. The charity offers a holistic service to meet the specialist needs of both the children and young people and their families, including the bereaved.