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Oxfordshire business benefits from mentoring session with Lloyds TSB Commercial Group Director

After being crowned winner of the Lloyds TSB Enterprise Awards in March, YASA Motors, the Oxford-based manufacturer of high performance electric motors for hybrid and electric cars, received part of its prize – a mentoring session with leading figures from Lloyds TSB Commercial.

Tim Woolmer, CTO and founder of YASA Motors, welcomed his business mentors to the premises on Milton Park in Abingdon. He was joined by John Maltby, group director at Lloyds Banking Group Commercial, Dave Atkinson, area director for Gloucester and Oxfordshire,  and Paul Gaskins, senior manager commercial for Gloucester and Oxfordshire, who will be Tim’s ongoing mentor.

The day began with a tour of the factory for Tim to show his mentors the motors in action. The group then took part in a two hour mentoring session in which they discussed the company’s plans for the coming year and how these could best be achieved along with longer-term goals.

YASA Motors was named Overall Best Enterprise at this year’s Lloyds TSB Enterprise Awards. As part of the prize package, Tim was awarded £50,000, free legal advice from LawNet, and a comprehensive two-year mentoring programme designed to provide coaching and support on critical business issues such as planning, finance and marketing.

Tim Woolmer, CTO and founder of YASA Motors, said: “It was really useful to take part in the mentoring sessions, and I’m confident it will help my business to expand. The years of experience from the different mentors means there is so much to learn from them, and a lot of practical tips that I can put in to practice.

“I’m excited about the future possibilities of YASA and am looking forward to working with Paul as my mentor.”

John Maltby, group director, Lloyds Banking Group Commercial, said: “Working with young entrepreneurs like Tim is a really fulfilling process; it’s great to see such enthusiasm coupled with genuine business acumen from someone early in their career.

“At Lloyds TSB Commercial we are committed to helping SMEs across all industries, and to help us do this,  we have been leading the Business Finance Taskforce mentoring initiative,  including the development of a portal connecting SMEs with mentoring organisations and networks. We now have 300 mentors – and 35 per cent of the mentors involved in the initiative are from Lloyds Banking Group.

“In our Charter, we also promised to help 100,000 start ups in each of the three years to the end of 2012 and we have supported in excess of 261,000 start ups since the Charter launched in 2010.”