Bristol-based Latin American restaurant chain Las Iguanas has been bought by the owner of Cafe Rouge and Bella Italia for £85m. Casual Dining Group acquired the business from its private equity owners Bowmark Capital. Las Iguanas, which opened its first branch in Bristol’s St Nicholas Street in 1991, now...
The first of Bristol Airport’s two major terminal extensions opened to passengers today following a 12-month build programme and £8.6m investment. The east terminal extension includes a significantly enlarged departure lounge featuring hundreds of additional seats as well several retail and catering brands new to the airport. A stand-out...
Business West, the organisation behind Bristol Chamber of Commerce, has called on the Chancellor to strike a balance between eliminating the deficit and stimulating growth in next week’s Budget. And while George Osborne is likely to focus on the cuts and reform, he must also concentrate on infrastructure, boosting...
Bristol-based legal experts at national law firm Bond Dickinson have helped the business behind a pioneering home ownership plan receive £40m funding from the Greater London Authority to launch in the capital. Gentoo Genie expects to be able to offer 2,000 new homes to buyers who would not ordinarily...
The Land Registry has appointed West of England law firm Ashfords as a provider of legal services to its corporate procurement team following a tender process. The team is responsible for all major spending by the Land Registry, principally on information and communications technology (ICT) and facilities management (FM)...
Three of the Bristol area’s most successful firms will go head to head next week in the South West’s most prestigious business competition. Global financial administration company Computershare Investors Services, Loungers – the business behind the successful café/bar chain – and Chipping Sodbury-based Ian Williams, one of the UK’s...
Showpiece Bristol city centre office scheme 66 Queen Square has been sold for nearly £33m – before building work is even finished. Swedish construction group Skanska exchanged contracts this week to sell the 61,500 sq ft building to Aviva Investors Property Trust. Skanska immediately said it was looking to...
A distribution base at Portbury has been acquired in a £5.75m deal with the new owners looking at a possible redevelopment of the site. The 12.2 acre plot, pictured below, only houses a 64,000 sq ft unit leased by car distributor Walon – and with its 15-year lease expiring...
More than 80% of West of England firms fear leaving the EU would pose a risk to the UK economy, according to results of a survey among nearly 1,000 businesses in the region. Two thirds also believe it would be bad for their own business. The survey by Business...
Bristol Airport is to build a £24m extension to its terminal featuring state-of-the-art technology aimed at streamlining passenger security checks and ending peak-time bottle necks. The airport, the UK’s ninth largest and one of its fastest growing, is holding talks with security firms to install the industry’s most-advanced equipment...
Bristol-headquartered law firm Burges Salmon has advised Ahli United Bank UK (AUB UK) on the sale of its entire student accommodation portfolio in a £271m deal with the Unite UK Student Accommodation Fund (USAF). AUB’s UK Student Accommodation Fund was set-up as a Sharia-compliant vehicle and in 2011 bought...
By Barbara Davies, chief executive, West of England Local Enterprise Partnership. Our newly refreshed LEP board met for the first time on June 17. There are some new faces following the local elections and a business-led selection process. Great news that Colin Skellett has been reappointed as chair of...
Accountancy and investment management group Smith & Williamson has launched a free tax calculator to enable businesses to work out how much tax they could be saving on their research and development (R&D) costs. The online tool has been set up in the light of research suggesting that thousands...
