FINAL ‘ENTERPRISE OSCARS’ REWARD INFLUENTIAL SCOTTISH ENTREPRENEURS

2004 INNER CITY 100 INDEX CELEBRATES VIBRANT LOCALLY OWNED BUSINESS FUELING THE ECONOMY IN SCOTLAND’s POOREST POSTCODES

A Dundee firm has earned a place on the fourth and final annual Inner City 100 - the prestigious annual Index of the top 100 fastest growing businesses in the UK’s most deprived urban wards.

Medea International Limited was 3rd on this years prestigious Index of the 100 fastest growing companies in the UK’s inner cities. Medea had an impressive turnover of £15m in 2003. The company had an average growth rate over the past five years of over 4,600% per cent, and now employs over 30 people in the city.

Medea International also won the No. 1 position for a Scottish company, and was honoured with and additional Special award from the nef (the new economics foundation), giving them a total of 3 awards – more than any other company in the index.

The Inner City 100 is a project of leading regeneration think tank nef, supported by Royal Bank of Scotland. It is the only index of the fastest growing businesses in Britain’s most deprived inner city areas. The Inner City 100, dubbed the ‘Enterprise Oscars’ by Chancellor Gordon Brown, has transformed understanding of the economic potential in the UK’s distressed urban areas, revealing how innovative entrepreneurs and local workforces are leading the regeneration of Britain’s inner cities.

Inner City 100 firms fuel their local economies, and provide very significant positive impacts for their local areas. Typically, Inner City 100 firms have significant numbers of employees who live locally (15 per cent within one mile) and through paying fair wages, contribute very significant sums to their local economy. On average, the lowest pay within Inner City 100 firms is £5.85, which is £1 above the national minimum wage, and research carried out in 2003 indicates that firms on the Index also spend well above the national average on training.

Estimates of all financial and non financial contributions made by the Inner City 100 firms to their communities in the last year total an incredible £7 million. And, the smaller the company, the greater relative impact for the community – micro firms spend 23 times as much locally (as a proportion of turnover) as large firms.

Inner City entrepreneurs are also engaged in contributing to their communities beyond the economic benefits that they bring.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Inner City 100 Patron, the Rt. Honourable Gordon Brown said: "I have been delighted to support the Inner City 100 over the last four years and proud to be one of its patrons. The success of the 2004 Inner City 100 award winners – creating more than 5,500 jobs and growing on average by over 1,000 per cent over the past five years– shows that enterprise can flourish in our inner city areas.

"For far too long, the image of enterprise in this country was of a closed circle with millions left out. But I believe that there should be no no-go areas for enterprise culture, and that the British economy will do best when men and women from the nation’s high, as well as low, unemployment communities have the confidence that they can transform their ideas and hopes into business start ups and growing firms, building an enterprise culture genuinely open to all."

This year’s Inner City entrepreneurs not only support their local communities, they are also overwhelmingly enthusiastic about being there. 83 per cent rate their current location as a good or excellent place to do business, and 49 per cent of Inner City 100 companies believe that if they left their inner city location it would have a negative or very negative impact on their business.

Stewart Wallis, Executive Director, nef said: "As we look back at the achievements of the past four years, it is remarkable how much has changed since the Inner City 100 was launched in 2001. Since then, a policy revolution has begun in which inner city enterprise has been placed at the heart of regeneration initiatives and the drive to improve UK competitiveness. We now need to ensure that the contributions these enterprises have made to their local communities are safeguarded for the benefit of those communities."

Fred Goodwin, Group Chief Executive, The Royal Bank of Scotland Group said: “The Inner City 100 is important because it has not only challenged the view that our inner cities are not a good place to do business but it has demonstrated the impacts these businesses have had. The companies listed over the past four years have created almost 15,000 new jobs, many of which have gone to people living locally. The jobs and wealth that these businesses create and the service they provide are critical in helping deprived communities move forward.