Bath-based IT services company Cloud Direct has secured £1.5m of equity funding from three of the UK’s highest-profile investors, including Saracens Rugby Club chairman Nigel Wray. The investment is the cloud broker’s third so far this year and takes its total funding to £2.74m. It will accelerate its sales and marketing, allow it open...
Minerva Bath, the premium used car dealership, has agreed an exclusive franchise arrangement to sell Korean-built SsangYong cars. The move, which is Bathford-based Minerva’s first entry into the new car market since opening just over a year ago, brings a lesser-known marque to the Bath area. SsangYong, South Korea’s oldest and fourth-largest auto manufacturer,...
The parent company of luxury hotel group The Hotel Collection, which owns Bath’s Combe Grove Manor Hotel, has gone into administration. UK Group of Hotels, which operates 21 hotels across the UK, called in administrators Duff & Phelps to help re-finance the business. The move followed the end of the firm’s banking facilities in...
Future, the Bath-based magazine and website group, has named the team that will develop its content and marketing strategy as its root-and-branch restructuring continues. The team, under the leadership of content & marketing director Nial Ferguson, pictured, is responsible for creating and developing Future’s brands, audiences and market expertise across its games, technology, music,...
Strong customer growth, particularly for gas, has helped Chippenham-based renewable electricity supplier Good Energy overcome a reduction in demand caused by the mild winter. Increased marketing and business improvements should also strengthen its position at the forefront of the independent renewable electricity supply and generation sector, it said in a trading update for the...
Staff at law firm Withy King in Bath have raised more than £13,000 for the Royal United Hospital’s Forever Friends Appeal through their ‘summer of sport’ Since March they have been walking, cycling and climbing to raise funds to help the appeal to build a pioneering centre for the hospital. Their fund-raising activities started...
The West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has appointed Barbara Davies as its new chief executive. The LEP’s former head of place and infrastructure, Barbara Davies, pictured, has been acting as interim director since former chief executive Paul Wilson quit six weeks ago. Barbara has worked at the LEP, which is tasked with...
Bristol Airport has announced a £8.6m extension of its terminal – the first major expansion of the building since it opened in 14 years ago. The scheme forms the latest stage of a large-scale, phased development at the airport which will lift capacity from 6m to 10m passengers a year. Bosses also hope it...
Further evidence of an impending skills shortage among West firms that could threaten to derail the economic recovery has emerged from a report predicting the strongest jobs growth since 1998. The national survey by accountants BDO shows businesses’ hiring intentions rose sharply last month to surpass their pre-recession figure and reach their highest level...
Bath firms are facing a looming skills crisis – yet there are thousands of young people desperate to work, new research warned this week. The study by the Prince’s Trust and HSBC reveals that 69% of businesses across the South West believe a significant skills crisis will hit their organisations within the next three...
