Two East Anglian manufacturing companies are to invest in their factories and workforces to target export markets after securing grants totalling £435,000.

Ipswich-based Colour Marketing Services (CMS), which produces paint, wood and material point-of-sale samples for a wide range of customers, has secured a £67,000 grant from the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Growing Business Fund.

The support will help the company expand into a new factory, doubling its floor space and creating seven new jobs including two apprenticeships.

CMS supplies both world famous brands and small independent retailers throughout the UK and across Europe, South Africa and the Middle East. Its move into an upgraded factory on the Farthing Road Industrial Estate, from two smaller factories, will help it to streamline production and buy new equipment.

Anne Harrison, managing director, “The new factory with modern machinery will deliver a step change for our business’s productivity. Being under one roof, will enable a smoother production flow, along with the space for further investment in machinery.

“This combination will help us to win more customers at home and abroad, driving up our exports. The grant from the LEP has helped to set us on course to achieve our future ambitions.”

Since 2006, CMS has grown from one employee to a workforce of 16 people. It aims to take on new apprentices every six months and its set to recruit two more shortly.

In Norfolk, meanwhile, Mirus Aircraft Seating, which has won a multi-million pound contract to manufacture tens of thousands of aircraft seats for an international airline, has been awarded a £368,000 grant to create a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Hingham, near Attleborough, which will result in 40 new jobs, including production technicians, supply chain and administration staff.

The team at Mirus are applying expertise developed in the automotive and motorsport industries to the world of aviation and are set to unveil their lightweight economy seat at an aviation exhibition to be held in Hamburg, Germany, in April 2016 with production beginning soon after.

Ben McGuire, chief operating officer of Mirus, said: “The support from New Anglia LEP and South Norfolk Council was instrumental for getting the business off the ground.

“The LEP funding gave us credibility which helped to secure more investment to equip the factory. Coupled with a talented workforce which has the skills to work in the aviation industry this meant that we chose to locate the business in the East.”

Since its launch in 2013, the Growing Business Fund has awarded £13.5million in grants to 244 businesses across Norfolk and Suffolk, which will help create more than 1,700 new jobs and release £77m of private sector investment.

The fund offers grants worth up to 20% of the total project cost, to a maximum of £500,000, for businesses seeking to expand and employ more staff. There is also a Small Grants Scheme which offers sums of £5,000 to £25,000.

Chris Starkie, managing director of New Anglia LEP, said: “The Growing Business Fund is helping to power growth for the best and brightest manufacturing businesses in Norfolk and Suffolk, businesses that are injecting innovation into the way they work and setting themselves apart from the rest of the world.

“Colour Marketing Services and Mirus Aircraft Seating are two exemplar businesses, exporting to markets worldwide and demonstrating that we are at the forefront of international industries. They are both world ambassadors for the East.

“We are calling all dynamic businesses who want to grow and invest in high quality jobs to come forward to see if the Growing Business Fund can help them in 2016,” he added.

For more information on the Growing Business Fund, contact the New Anglia Growth Hub on 03003 336536 or emailgrowthhub@newanglia.co.uk .