Record label and fashion designer handed investment boosts

The Advantage Creative Fund has invested in two Midland businesses hoping to succeed in the creative sector.

Three Ones Music, a record label and music booking agency based at the Custard Factory in Birmingham, and fashion designer Jenny Hardcastle will benefit from venture capital provided by the Advantage Creative Fund (ACF).

ACF, established in 2003, is a venture capital fund dedicated to supporting and developing businesses in the West Midlands creative sector and is sponsored by Advantage West Midlands, the European Regional Development Fund and Arts Council England.

To date, the fund has made more than 70 investments into creative companies.

Three Ones Music was founded by two of the Midland music scene’s most respected figures, John Mostyn and Geoff Pearce.

Using the founding partners’ vast experience and knowledge of the music industry, ACF’s investment will support Three Ones’ business plan to further develop an agency called Music of Distinction.

This aspect of the business will specialise in booking music-based entertainment into venues and for private and corporate events all around the country and Europe.

Three Ones have also invested in a record label that will support bands in developing their recording and live performance careers.

John Mostyn, of Three Ones Music, said the investment from ACF had been an enormous support in developing the business.

“The fund could see that in the music industry you have to make decisions and investments that will not necessarily provide instant results.

“It is often a long burn. Banks will often not have this patience or understanding.”

Jenny Hardcastle, who describes herself as “a sculptor of fabric,” launched her own-name label in 2007 after entering the PIN design competition.

After combining full-time employment with designing her range in the evenings and at the weekend, Jenny decided to focus full-time on her own business.

“I am operating in a competitive and high cost marketplace,” she said. “You need to be able to buy large quantities of often expensive fabrics.

“Now I have ACF behind me I can purchase greater quantities of materials and produce more garments, which then have a wider distribution.”

The initial five-year contract for the Advantage Creative Fund ends in December and, as a result of the successful investment of funds, it has had to close six months early.