THE owner of a well-known company which makes eccentric teapots this week revealed how he nearly had to move production abroad.

The Teapottery at Leyburn was badly hit by the events of September 11, 2001.

At the time, the USA was its largest market but, following the terrorist attack, the company was forced to review its operations owing to fewer American tourists visiting Wensleydale and the collapse of the US dollar.

"We have production staff who have been with the company since it first started 25 years ago," said Nigel Corp. "But I realised we needed to bring someone in from the outside who could come in with an open mind and tell us what we were doing right and what we were doing wrong.

"It was getting to the stage that, if things didn't change, we might have had to move the manufacturing side of the business abroad and that would have resulted in the loss of 18 jobs."

It was the last thing he wanted to do, but he did want to increase efficiency by 10pc, and, thanks to the new Supporting Innovations Service grants, the company will stay in Leyburn.

Mr Corp was speaking at Wednesday's launch of the SIS grants, which are administered by North Yorkshire County Council in association with Business Link York and North Yorkshire.

Gordon Gresty, director of business and community services at the county council, said The Teapottery was a perfect example of how the grant could help small and medium sized businesses in the county.

"Up to £250,000 is being made available to SMEs in many parts of North Yorkshire and we are encouraging more companies to apply for financial support," he said.

Mr Corp said the original £3,500 grant had allowed him to bring in a specialist ceramics consultant to look at ways of improving efficiency.

The second grant allowed him to appoint a marketing consultant, whose job was to find new markets for the company's products, particularly in the corporate sector.

"When you are working on tight margins like ours, it is difficult to pay £14,000 for example, to employ two consultants," he said. "But when you are getting half this figure in the form of a grant it is not as big a risk and could have a very good outcome.

"The key advantage of the grant is that it gives small companies the chance to push those areas of business that they might otherwise have to ignore or avoid due to cost and time constraints."

Coun Carl Les, the county council's executive member for business and community services, said The Teapottery was a good example of a small but successful local company which was being held back because it could not get third party specialist support to help it develop.

The SIS grant provided such companies with the chance to gain access to support which would enable them to develop their business, and they would like to recommend more businesses to apply for financial support, he said.

The grant can be used to take advantage of independent, leading business expertise and support. It is designed to help businesses either to identify opportunities to expand or to address weaknesses.

It is particularly aimed at firms in rural areas, which may face obstacles owing to isolation and poor access to services. Those areas are classed as being in Objective 2 funding area.

Up to £3,750 is available to each business, which must be match-funded. To be eligible for the grant the business must employ fewer than 250 full-time staff, have a turnover less than £27m and a balance sheet of no more than £18m.