A Bradford textile chief has welcomed the launch of a new service to help go-ahead small and medium firms and business people.

The move has been made by Connect Yorkshire, a not-for-profit company founded more than ten years ago by leading Yorkshire professionals and entrepreneurs to help growth businesses get and funding.

It has now launched Connect Gazelles, a membership-based group to provide ambitious entrepreneurs and fast-growing regional SMEs with a range of exclusive services, including top level mentoring and support from successful entrepreneurs.

Andrew Seal, group managing director of the Bradford-based family run specialist fibres group SIL Holdings, said: “The Connect Gazelles offers fast growing and ambitious companies such as ours help and support.

“To have access to such a high level of entrepreneurs and be able to tap into the expertise of some of Yorkshire’s most successful businesspeople as well as meet with like-minded individuals who are focused on growth offers great advantages.”

Membership of Connect Gazelles is open to growing companies with a turnover of £250,000 and above. To date, more than 20 top business achievers have committed to the group as ‘Entrepreneurs in Residence’ .

The Gazelles launch event, attended by more than 70 companies, was hosted by Otley business tycoon Lawrence Tomlinson at his Leeds-based LNT Group headquarters.

He said: “Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely place particularly in the early days; to have access to the level of entrepreneurs that Connect Gazelles have on board and to be able to share business ideas with like-minded people in a similar position is invaluable and will give people a fast track to reach their goals. If the Gazelles had been around twenty years ago I could have grown even quicker.”

Nick Butler, Connect Yorkshire chief executive, said: “This is an exclusive concept aimed at assisting fast-track companies grow and achieve further success by helping solving key issues in their path to rapid growth and providing direct access to leading entrepreneurs who will share their extensive expertise. The response has been phenomenal. There is clearly a need for a meaningful support group at this level.”