North Eastern Regional Office
Located in Ballymena, Co. Antrim, our North Eastern Regional office works with businesses across Antrim & Newtownabbey and Mid & East Antrim council areas.
The North Eastern Regional Office provides advice and support to potential entrepreneurs and start-ups within the region. It also works with businesses seeking to sell outside Northern Ireland for the first time, with a focus on Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.
North Eastern Regional Office supported business performance
The North Eastern Regional Office works with businesses from a range of sectors; most notably Advanced Engineering & Manufacturing, Agri-Food, Digital & Creative Technologies, Life & Health Sciences and Tourism.
Our support over the last five years, combined with the investments by local and international businesses, has the potential to realise investment of £368m in the region, and to create 1,457 new jobs.
More detail on our work in each specific council area is detailed below.
Council areas covered by the North Eastern Regional Office
Antrim & Newtownabbey Borough Council
As a Statutory Partner in Love Living Here, we are committed to working in partnership with Antrim & Newtownabbey Council to help businesses grow and compete globally.
Between 2017-18 and 2021-22 we provided support of £34m to 220 businesses based in the Borough. This support, combined with company investment, has the potential to generate over £288m of investment in the area, and support the creation of 998 jobs.
We work with companies of different types and sizes to help them to grow and innovate. Investment in R&D has increased by 327 percent from last year, supported by our Grant for R&D.
You can find more detail on the business make-up of the area and our specific support in the following briefing:
Download the Invest Northern Ireland Council Briefing for the Antrim & Newtownabbey Borough Council area (PDF)
Our support included £880,000 of Local Economic Development funding to the council to support the development of a range of programmes to meet the needs of local business. This support was part funded by ERDF, under the Investment for Growth and Jobs Programme 2014-2020.
Council-led programmes include:
Mid & East Antrim Borough Council
As a Statutory Partner in Putting People First, the Mid & East Antrim Borough Council community plan, we are committed to working in partnership with Mid & East Antrim Borough Council to help businesses grow and compete globally.
Over the past five years we have provided support of £16m to 239 businesses based in the Borough. This funding has the potential to deliver £79m of investment in the area and lead to the creation of 459 jobs.
Last year we made 134 offers of support totalling almost £3m in assistance to companies in the council area, and over 50 percent of the jobs created with our support were within the Advanced Engineering & Manufacturing sector.
You can find more detail on the business make-up of the area and our specific support in the following briefing:
Download the Invest Northern Ireland Council Briefing for the Mid & East Antrim Borough Council area (PDF)
Our support included over £1m of Local Economic Development funding to the council to support the development of a range of programmes to meet the needs of local business. This support was part funded by ERDF, under the Investment for Growth and Jobs Programme 2014-2020.
Council-led programmes include:
Entrepreneurship
We are keen to hear from entrepreneurs who want to start, build or scale new businesses or ideas; so if you have an idea for a new business, a new product, service, business model or a new market opportunity, the North Eastern Regional Office can help. We provide advice, guidance and financial assistance to support entrepreneurs through the business development process from ideation through to commercialisation.
We also work in partnership with councils, local enterprise agencies, accelerators and further education colleges, providing early stage business startups with a growth pathway that ensures access to the right advice and support at each crucial stage of development
Find out more about support for Innovation on the innovateni.com website
Invest Northern Ireland support
We work directly and indirectly with businesses across Northern Ireland.
Our approach to supporting businesses is based on three key elements:
- Providing information and advice, directly and through a range of information services
- Providing support to people wanting to set up their own business and helping new and existing businesses grow and move into new markets
- Providing tailored support to businesses that can make the greatest contribution to increasing productivity, innovation and export growth in Northern Ireland
Regional Manager
Invest Northern Ireland's North Eastern Regional Office is managed as follows.
Antrim & Newtownabbey Borough Council area - Susan O'Kane.
Susan has been with Invest NI since 2003 and has held a number of roles including working with the ICT sector and the textiles sector.
She also spent time on secondment to UKTI, Dusseldorf, Germany, selling the skills of Northern Ireland on a European basis.
Mid and East Antrim Borough Council area - Des Gartland
Des has been in a Regional Manager role since 2008 and prior to this, spent 13 years in the private sector.
Not sure that this support is right for you? Contact us and we can explore options for your business together.
