A scheme to give new businesses a helping hand is celebrating a full house.

Six months after opening its doors, Coachmakers, the business incubator unit in Eastbourne, reports every office and workshop has been taken.

Nine businesses, many operating in information technology and new media, are now up and running at the unit.

The business centre was funded jointly by Eastbourne Borough Council, Sussex Enterprise, the South-East England Development Agency (Seeda) and the Eastbourne and District Economic Development Agency (EDEAL) to provide affordable and accessible offices and workshops for new businesses.

A big extra for the young entrepreneurs is EDEAL's business support team which is on hand to help them find their feet. Among the businesses are some very imaginative companies, already growing and with good future prospects.

Danny O'Callaghan, head of design at ID Productions, said the Coachmakers had made life easier for his business.

He added: "There are a lot of very talented people here and without the support of EDEAL and the facilities of Coachmakers, getting the businesses going would have been much harder.

"We help each other with know-how, use each other's services and generally support each other. It has a great atmosphere."

ID Productions is a cluster of young companies, involving two principals and a team of writers, designers and marketers. It launched Bourne Free, a magazine targeted at the 18 to 30 market.

Brian Stanton, a partner in the software development firm, Atomic IT, was also happy to sing the praises of Coachmakers.

He said: "The nature of our business meant we broke the rules a bit when it came to the number of offices we needed but thanks to EDEAL it was never a problem."

EDEAL's chief executive, George Collier, said: "Coachmakers has been a huge success. It provides just the right kind of launchpad and can give companies the best possible chance of an exciting future."