Grants can help Dorset businesses rise to the top

A Dorset bakery is proof that grants can help dough to rise, and now other businesses are being urged to reap the same financial benefits.

There are just weeks left for businesses to apply for Dorset Council’s UKSPF business grants, that are aimed to boost growth and productivity.

And as Holwell-based Honeybuns Bakery has shown, applying for these grants can make a huge difference.

Run by husband-and-wife team, Matt and Emma Goss-Custard, the bakery specialises in premium handmade gluten free cakes, flapjacks, and brownies and employs 23 people.

Emma founded Honeybuns in 1998 when she started delivering handmade cakes by bicycle. The business has grown organically ever since and now runs from converted farm buildings.

Thanks to three UKSPF grants totalling over £40,000 (which Honeybuns also match funded), the bakery has bought new equipment essential for its continued growth.

Matt explained: “Our previous UKSPF grants have enabled us to buy machinery, which have already greatly benefited our business.

“And in this latest grant round, we’ve successfully secured more funding to buy an automatic cake slicing machine. This will alleviate a bottleneck in our production workflow and help us increase productivity.

“Thanks to these grants we were able to make capital investments that we would not otherwise have been able to.

“These investments will not only help us improve as a business but will also give us far greater resilience.” 

Businesses can apply for a share of £810,283 to help projects or initiatives that can be completed by 31 January 2026.

A panel will meet on 5 November to consider applications and businesses are urged to apply now before it is too late.

Grants ranging from £10,000 to £40,000 are available and businesses will need to provide 100% match funding.

Eligible activity could include investing in new production methods, buying machinery, providing staff training and net zero innovation.

These new grants bring the total funding made available to local businesses since UKSPF was launched 3 years ago to £6.4million.

Dorset Council’s deputy leader and Cabinet member for Property & Assets and Economic Growth, Cllr Richard Biggs, said: “This is a great opportunity for businesses to boost their productivity and who need that extra helping hand to get things off the ground.

“We have distributed millions of pounds of funding to more than 100 Dorset businesses, all of whom are doing amazing work to help our economy grow, creating more high skilled jobs for local people.

“I really hope to see more success stories like Honeybuns to emerge from this latest round of UKSPF funding.”

Businesses can apply now by going to UK Shared Prosperity Fund 2025 to 2026 - Dorset Council