GWENT Cables is being held up as a prime example of the benefits of a pioneering Wales-based business back-up scheme.

The Finance Wales programme, which provides management know-how rather than money, has helped a group of small South Wales firms to create nearly 180 jobs and to introduce more than 150 new products.

The 'Mentor Wales' is a scheme specifically geared to help growth-minded small businesses to put their plans into practice.

Launched last year, the programme maintains a pool of widely experienced senior business people from the private sector who can be assigned to work at a subsidised rate with eligible small firms for up to two years to impart their skills.

To date, 47 firms in industrial South Wales have benefited from 'Mentoring'. Extra investment into the companies of £814,000 has been triggered by the Mentors' activity - which has also helped with the introduction of 162 new products.

The programme is focused on the standard definition of the "small and medium sized enterprise" sector - which means companies with more than ten and fewer than 250 employees.

Mentor Wales' manager in South Wales, Mike Stickland, said: "Our key criterion is making sure that we help companies to grow faster than they would without our support. "We are not consultants. We are, in effect, non-executives who work with directors and managers to guide them round the potholes and over the hurdles of business.

"Small business managers can be very hard pressed if a company is going for growth. An objective outsider who understands business can help enormously in sorting out strategic priorities and acting as a sounding-board for the company's own ideas."

Among the programme's recent clients is Gwent Cables, launched in 1992 by Keith Gibbons as a one-man business in the garage of his home.

Gwent Cables now employs 22 people and supplies wiring assemblies to some of the leading names in the electronics industry.

Last year, the company decided to enlist a Mentor before making its third move - from Business Centre workshops into a 5,500 sq ft factory unit at Cwmbran's prestigious Llantarnam Business Park.

Gwent Cables managing director Keith Gibbons, a past winner of the Gwent Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, said: "I felt it was good sense to use the expertise of a Mentor as a sounding-board for my ideas before making the move. In the event, the Mentor also challenged a lot of my ideas and made me justify a lot of decisions.

"It was great to get input from somebody who knew all about the likely traps and difficulties that we might encounter, before we hit them."

*PICTURED: Keith Gibbons, of Gwent Cables, with Mike Stickland, of the WDA.