Business West, the organisation behind Bath Chamber of Commerce, provides the best business advice, guidance and support of any chamber in the country, a new report has revealed.
It is also the top-grossing and most-profitable among the 53 accredited chambers across Britain, research by membership group the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) shows. 
According to the BCC, Business West ranks first for the number of expert business advisors and support staff it employs – easily surpassing those of equivalent organisations in other major economic centres such as London, Manchester and Birmingham.
More than 200 staff are employed by Business West to advise firms on a wide range of issues from start-up funding and financial planning to intellectual property and overseas market entry.
As a result, Business West has worked with 22,000 businesses over the past two years, helping create 4,400 jobs and generating £650m in additional export sales.
This breadth and depth of business knowledge means that Business West, which also runs the Bath & North East Somerset Initiative, is the top grossing and most profitable British chamber, according to the BCC report.
All profit is reinvested back into the business to support activities that promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth or to fund cultural and charitable causes such as Bristol Festival of Ideas and Quartet Community Foundation.
Business West is also a delivery partner for the government’s overseas business and in-bound trade body the Department for International Trade (DIT) and Innovate UK, the government-supported innovation agency. 
Under these agreements it offers a range of business support services that add to its solid financial position, including its market-leading export documentation service which experienced a record uptake this summer.
Business West managing director Phil Smith said: “Size matters! Business West assets, including 200 talented colleagues, many directly talking to business every day, excellent data on the local business scene and leading-edge communication capabilities, allow us to listen to and speak for over 22,000 local businesses.
“The more scale and resources we have the better we can achieve our goal of helping our region’s businesses go further, faster.”
Business West, which is based on the outskirts of Bristol at Leigh Court, also runs chambers of commerce and initiatives in areas such as Bristol, Swindon and Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.
Pictured: Some of the Business West team at their Leigh Court headquarters
