High-growth businesses in the Bath area are to be offered specialist support under a scheme launched by Barclays. Called ‘Barclays High Growth and Entrepreneurs’, the initiative is in direct response to what the bank sees as Britain’s ‘scale-up gap’, and will also help the UK compete on the global stage. Barclays believes that by...
Investing in innovation and strategic acquisitions has paid off for manufacturer Avon Rubber with annual pre-tax profits climbing by 19%. The Melksham-based group, which makes gas masks and respirators for the military and emergency services and rubber products for the global dairy industry, achieved an 8% increase in revenues to £134.3m in the 12...
Bath’s biggest engineering group Rotork today insisted a double-digit fall in recent orders and revenues would not hit its profits. The firm, which makes sophisticated valves and industrial control equipment for the global oil and gas industry, revealed that its order intake in the third quarter dropped 17.2% in period from the same period...
A London-based venture capital firm is highlighting Bath and the West of England as one of Europe’s most attractive places for investment in start-up companies. Since its launch just over a year ago, Downing Ventures has invested almost a third of its entire portfolio in start-ups based in the Bath-Bristol area. Its investments include...
Alliance Pharma, the Chippenham-based speciality pharmaceutical firm, is to receive £6.7m in compensation for lost sales of a bladder cancer treatment. ImmuCyst, one of its top-selling drugs, had peak annual sales of more than £4m before Alliance’s manufacturing partner French healthcare giant Sanofi Pasteur suspended production in mid-2012 at a Canadian plant after mold...
West of England firms are right behind the Prime Minister as he sets out his opening position on renegotiating the UK’s relationship with the EU, according to the region’s largest business organisation. Business West, which runs Bath Chamber of Commerce, says the region’s businesses want a clear settlement that keeps the UK in a...
InterAction of Bath, a consultancy specialising in ergonomics and human factors, is to 3D scan 1,400 military personnel as part of a major Ministry of Defence project. The consultancy, which has carried out a number of smaller exercises for the MoD, will collect the size and shape of the male and female personnel, including...
Specialist seating manufacturing Summit Chairs has reported a better-than-targeted 17% increase in turnover after re-shaping its business model. The Trowbridge-based firm, which employs 50 people and has a turnover of £4.7m, received support from the Business Growth Service after encountering problems with working methods following a move to a new factory. It realised it...
SETsquared, the University of Bath-backed innovation partnership, has been named the best in Europe at helping new businesses for the third year running. The recognition came in the University Business Incubator (UBI) Index, which ranks Europe’s best performing university business incubators. SETsquared, a partnership of the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey,...
By Matt Cross, head of inward investment, Invest Bristol and Bath. Business leaders, students, visitors and residents are the most powerful, passionate and authentic advocates of any town or city. People who live and breathe Bristol and Bath get the message across better than any other form of advertising or promotion. Why is that?...
