TIME is running out for Cumbrian businesses to claim grants of up to £1m to help fund expansion and create jobs.

The Cumbria Growth Fund is a £4m pot that allows businesses to access money from the Government's Regional Growth Fund.

It allows those in manufacturing, including artisan producers, or those in services, to apply for amounts between £10,000 and £1m.

The money must be allocated by March.

To allow ample time for businesses to complete the application process by then, they are being urged to come forward now.

The Cumbria Growth Fund is delivered by Cumbria Chamber of Commerce in partnership with CN Media and UNW LLP.

Businesses to have benefited so far include Bells Fishmongers in Carlisle and Kendal Nutricare in Kendal.

Bells turned to Cumbria Growth Fund after it landed a contract to process Scottish rainbow trout for export to Europe.

It secured an £18,000 grant to invest £58,000 in equipment to handle the increased workload at its site in Kingstown Industrial Estate.

Tony Bell, managing director of Bell's, said: “We've had to invest to make the job viable. When we started it was too labour intensive to get the price right for the customer.

“We did it all by hand at first but now we have a machine that guts and gills the fish. Where it was taking six men four hours to do one tonne – around 3,000 fish – now two men can do that in an hour and a half.”

The grant has also helped pay for conveyors and cutting tables to boost throughput of game such as pheasant, partridge, duck and rabbit.

Kendal Nutricare secured a £591,000 grant to help implement a three-year growth plan that should see turnover rise to £31.6m by 2019-20 and the workforce grow to 135 by the end of next year.

Irish businessman Ross McMahon bought the Heinz baby food factory in Mint Bridge Road last year, saving the jobs of the 88-strong workforce, and set up Kendal Nutricare.

Its newly-created infant formula brand Kendamil is the only infant formula manufactured in Britain and is the only one on the market that uses a traditional full cream, whole-milk recipe.

Mr McMahon said: “We have a three-year plan to expand the business and to export overseas, particularly to China.

“We plan to penetrate new markets with new products, and will be investing a lot in research and development.”

For more details and information on how to apply for the grants, click here . The process is straightforward, with a panel meeting monthly to consider applications.