A £300,000 campaign has been launched to encourage businesses in Wales’s Welsh-speaking heartlands to use the language to boost their bottom line.

Bwrlwm ARFOR is reaching out to companies and businesses, from village shops to multi-million pound operations, across the four counties with the highest percentage of Welsh speakers.

It is part of the £11 million Welsh Government ARFOR Two scheme that’s targeting the Welsh strongholds of Ynys Môn, Gwynedd, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire to use the language to boost entrepreneurship and economic development.

The aim is to create opportunities for young people and families to help them stay in or return to their home communities and is part of the Welsh Government’s Welsh language strategy to ensure there are a million Welsh speakers by 2050.

The project, which runs until the end of March next year, is being run by consultancy firm Lafan whose Lead Consultant Zoe Pritchard aims to support communities in those counties use Welsh as a business advantage.

She said: “We want to create a buzz around the use of Welsh in a business or commercial environment and how it can help businesses thrive and provide careers for our young people so they don’t feel they have to move away.”