West businesses making or supplying upmarket products are today getting an opportunity to meet buyers from China purchasing consortium Hi Lifestyle when they visit the region. Hi Lifestyle is looking for partners to help it satisfy ever-growing demand in China for high-end products, particularly those regarded as aspirational or with strong luxury brands. While...
Good Energy, the fast-growing, Chippenham-based renewable electricity supplier, has started producing and exporting electricity to the national grid from its first solar farm in Dorset. The 5MW site is Good Energy’s first solar farm and will generate enough electricity for around 1,300 homes. Planning permission for the site was received at the end of...
Bath-based landscape architecture firm Grant Associates is to help design a new university in Vietnam after teaming up with US architects to win an international competition. Grant Associates is working with Boston-based Machado and Silvetti Associates on the project for the Vietnamese-German University Campus in Binh Duong Province. The university is a unique collaboration...
The number of businesses expecting to recruit more staff has almost returned to the pre-recession levels of 2007 new figures released today show. But while the data is welcome news for job seekers, some business analysts are warning that it could signal looming skills shortages. The latest Business Trends report by accountants and business...
Monday 16 June Finals: Majestic Wine, RM2 International, Sirius Real Estate AGMs: Central Asia Metals, CPPGroup, Planet Payment, President Energy Economics: Rightmove house prices Tuesday 17 June Interim: Crest Nicholson Finals: Ashtead, Consort Medical, Daisy, Record, Trifast Trading statements: JD Sports Fashion, Whitbread AGMs: Networkers International, Petropavlovsk, Premier Farnell, Whitbread Economics: Consumer price index,...
Chris Smith of cake and biscuit producers Marshfield Bakery has won the coveted title of Director of the Year at the annual Institute of Directors South West Awards. Chris, who joined the family-owned firm two years ago, was presented with his trophy at an awards ceremony and dinner staged last night in Bristol, beating...
Oscar-winning film producer Lord Puttnam has praised Bath Spa University’s new academic building as one that “any university anywhere in the world would envy”. Officially opening the building, called Commons, at the university’s Newton Park campus, he said: “Having walked around Commons, the facilities are absolutely stunning. “All of a sudden, and for the...
Annual financial results at 1pm, the Bath-based specialist lender to small and medium-sized firms, are expected to be slightly ahead of market expectations following its fourth consecutive year of organic growth, it said yesterday. The firm, quoted on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market, said in a trading update demand for finance from SMEs...
A prominent shop on Keynsham High Street has been to a local independent trader – a signal, according to property consultants Alder King, of a renewed demand in the town for well-located retail units. “It said the High Street had weathered the recession well as it provides its local market with a good variety...
West-based luxury brand Mulberry, best known for its £1,000-plus handbags, has promised to launch new products with slightly cheaper price tags after revealing that profits nearly halved in its last financial year. Chairman Godfrey Davis, who is leading a restructuring of the business to restore growth, said it had listened to its customers and...
