North Wales has seen a major growth in social enterprises over the last two years - pumping money into the local economy.
The social business sector in Wales is worth an estimated £3.18bn to the Welsh economy, a 34% increase on findings in 2016.
The ‘Mapping the Social Business Sector in Wales’ report revealed there are now more than 440 social businesses in North Wales - up from 320 in 2016.
Gwynedd had the highest number with 127 while Flintshire has seen the biggest increase over two years - from 28 to 65.
Across Wales social enterprises now employ around 55,000 people and providing volunteering opportunities to an estimated 58,000 individuals.
This is good news for the health of the economy with around a quarter of all businesses investing their profits in their social objectives and more than three-quarters pay the Real Living Wage to all their staff, compared to 48% of Welsh SMEs.
Brexit was identified as having impacted or expected to impact 50% of social businesses, with nine in ten of those reporting this to be a negative impact.
Examples of successful enterprises include Creating Enterprise, an award-winning building and maintenance social business based in Mochdre.
It is wholly-owned subsidiary of Cartrefi Conwy Housing Association and all of its commercial profits are reinvested into employment initiatives via its Employment Academy, which creates volunteering, training and employment opportunities for social housing tenants.
With specialist business advice from Social Business Wales, Creating Enterprise has experienced rapid growth since it was established as a community interest company in 2015.
The most recent accounts show an annual turnover of £9.7m, 3,800 properties maintained a year and 1,200 individuals accessing the drop in training facilities at Mochdre.
Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport, Lee Waters AM said: “This research shows a confident sector that employs around 55,000 people and contributes over £3bn to our economy.
"As headlines, these are impressive figures but they do not tell the whole story. Social businesses are embedded within their communities and they are driven by those communities.
"They deliver good jobs, closer to home, where communities need them. Social businesses work actively to address local issues through trading and then reinvesting the income they earn into the things that matter to them.”
