Business West, the region’s largest business organisation, welcomed today’s figures showing the South West leading the fall in unemployment – but warned that more needs to be done to get young people into work. Phil Smith, managing director of Business West, which runs Bristol Chamber of Commerce and the...
SciSys, the specialist IT firm with a base in Bristol, this week said it had ended a major contract which plunged it into the red last month and is now predicting a brighter future. Problems with the major fixed-price development project for an unnamed client pushed SciSys into a...
Bristol-headquartered law firm TLT has advised Wiltshire manufacturer Avon Rubber on its £3.5m acquisition of a thermal imaging camera business. Melksham-based Avon said Argus would boost profits and help longer-term product development opportunities in its protection and defence business, which produces innovative gas masks and respirators for defence and...
Bristol is aiming to become the UK’s first Internet of Things (IoT) demonstrator city-region in a move that could generate an investment of nearly £17m and help tackle the city’s poor air quality. The project aims to show how the IoT can be implemented on a large scale by...
The BBC must evolve to meet the challenges of an increasingly digital media landscape but must also be valued for future generations, one of its senior managers told West business leaders at the annual CBI regional dinner. Jenny Baxter, pictured, who as chief operating officer, BBC England, is in...
Construction has started on an £8.5m state-of-the-art asphalt plant at Avonmouth which will transform the fortunes of an historic Somerset firm. Aggregates firm Wainwright was founded in 1891 and now supplies high-quality stone, premium aggregates, asphalt and formation material from its quarry on the Mendips near Shepton Mallet. The plant...
The region covered by the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has been rated as the best of the 39 LEP areas across the country for its record on business start-ups. Research by information agency BankSearch shows 5.7% more businesses were launched in West of England during the...
Firms will want assurances that the business rates reform announced by the Chancellor this week will not more higher taxes. That’s the view of Business West, the region’s largest business organisation representing 16,000 firms and which runs the Bristol Chamber of Commerce and Bristol Initiative. George Osborne made the...
Confidence levels for firms across the West of England have fallen on the back of lower sales, fewer new jobs and worsening cashflow, according to the results of Business West’s latest survey. The figures, released today, showed how susceptible the region is to shifts in the world economy, said...
More than 80 of the South West’s top clinicians, academics and businesses attended the launch of a membership group tasked with stimulating the growth of the region’s life science industry. Medilink South West provides knowledge and support to businesses in the key sector, helping them grow and maximise opportunities...
Hi-tech clothing company Fhoss Technology, which aims to revolutionise workplace safety, is celebrating after being shortlisted for a string of awards this year. The Weston-super-Mare-based start-up produces light-powered personal protective equipment (PPE) that helps illuminate workers in the dark. The pioneering hi-tech wear features battery-powered strips on top of...
Bristol-based R&D tax credit consultancy ForrestBrown has appointed corporate tax specialist Jenny Tragner as a director. She joins from French-headquartered Alma Consulting Group, where she was R&D tax director, and her arrival takes ForrestBrown’s team of R&D specialists to 17. A chartered accountant and member of the Association of...
Bristol’s future as a vibrant business centre will be debated by three of the city’s leading business women at the UK’s biggest gathering of female business owners next month. They will take as their starting point the creation of a so-called Western Powerhouse to unite the city-region and claw...
