Leeds company's £15,000 Covid grant scheme to support arts and small businesses

Awesome Merchandise's scheme will offer £5,000 grants to three successful applicants from each of the music industry, performing arts and small businesses.

And the company will also offer their expertise through a year-long mentoring programme.

Each successful applicant will receive regular training and practical advice from Awesome Merchandise, to help grow their business through the use of marketing, and creating promotional merchandise.

Awesome Merchandise founder Luke Hodson, said: “2020 has been an extremely tough year so far for everyone, in particular the creative industries and small businesses.

"We wanted to show our support for these communities, not only financially but by sharing our knowledge and expertise, to help their business grow.

“At Awesome Merchandise, a large proportion of our customer-base are independent businesses, many of which are in the creative industries.

"We have great relationships with our customers and that’s why, in our 15th year, we chose to launch this grant scheme to support them.”

Once launched, the scheme will be open to applicants for two weeks, and the £15k will be split evenly across the three sectors.

To apply for the grant, and for more information on the scheme, go to https://www.awesomemerchandise.com/15k-grantThe closing date for applications is November 2.