AN enterprising Malvern man hasn’t looked back after a charity backed his business idea.

A £4,000 loan from the Prince’s Trust gave Damien Berry, aged 28, the vital leg-up he needed to set-up his own sandwich-making business.

Mr Berry said that without the charity’s backing it would have been difficult to get his company – Berry’s – off the ground.

He said: “The trust helped me enormously particularly starting-up my own business at a young age. Now, I run three businesses, have a new van and own a house.”

Four years ago Mr Berry decided to begin his own business after being made redundant from his job selling aircraft parts. Having previously trained as a chef he had the experience to go into catering but hit a problem common to start-ups – the lack of sufficient capital. He said: “I went to a bank. It was looking for a bit of capital but what I had wasn’t enough.”

A member of his family recommended the Prince’s Trust which runs a business programme for people aged between 18 and 30. The charity helped him draft a business plan, gave him a two-year lowrate loan and appointed a mentor who had years of experience in the catering trade.

Mr Berry said: “My mentor was a lady who had run a sandwich shop for years and her experience helped a lot.”

The loan went into a £10,000 start-up fund to buy initial stock and cover the costs of renting premises in St John’s, Worcester.

Mr Berry said: “I don’t want to mislead people into thinking running your own business is easy. I wanted to move quickly and luckily the trust allowed me to do that.”

After paying back his loan to the trust Mr Berry opened a second shop at Worcester University and in 2007 he moved his main outlet from Worcester to Church Street, Malvern. He also runs a catering firm.

The trust has been highlighting young people’s contributions to their communities and is trying to change perceptions about young men and women during its Youth Week. Since Prince Charles launched his charity in 1976 it has helped more than 575,000 disadvantaged young people get into education, training and work.

For more information visit princes-trust.org.uk or telephone 0800 842842.