Kevin Foster, Conservative Parliamentary Spokesman for Torbay, has welcomed news that Gooch & Housego (Torquay), has secured £800k of investment from the latest round of Regional Growth Funding.
The 5th round of the Government’s £3.2 billion Regional Growth Fund package to stimulate private sector economic growth and employment was announced this week. Gooch & Housego (Torquay) was one of 50 businesses to be selected through a competitive process from 133 applications.
The £800,000 granted to G&H (Torquay) will enable further investment into the company’s Systems Technology Group (STG). The group founded in early 2013 has a remit to design, develop and prototype systems-level products. The objective is to build a multi-disciplinary team with expertise in mechanical, electronic and software design and to integrate these technologies with G&H’s expertise in photonics and fiber optics.
STG is currently focused on innovative Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) fibre systems for medical imaging and erbium doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) systems for satellite communication.
Kevin said: “I am delighted to hear this news and to see this latest support coming to the bay.”
“Whilst Torquay is famous for its tourism offer, a key goal for the future is to diversify into high tech industries that offer great potential for growth and high skilled, well paid, job opportunities for the next generation.”
“This investment helps do just that and shows the Government’s long term economic plan having a direct impact here in the bay.”