Defence manufacturing group Avon Protection has appointed the chief financial officer of military and security firm Ultra Electronics as its new chief executive. The Melksham-based group, which specialises in protective gear, masks and breathing equipment for the military and first-responder markets, announced the appointment of Jos Sclater nearly five months after the resignation of...
Business innovation and creativity along with major regeneration schemes such as Bath Quays and the Milsom Quarter will help secure a strong future for Bath and North East Somerset, according to a new vision for the area. The new ‘place prospectus’ shows how better places and a carbon neutral economy can be created in...
The organisation behind the Bath’s chamber of commerce has become the first in the country to use a revolutionary new on-line customs tool that can ease post-Brexit complications when exporting to the Europe. Called Genesis, the system validates the origin of goods to make EU customs checks quicker and easier. It was used for...
The University of Bath has powered up its research and innovation capability by becoming the first UK university to move all possible high performance computing workloads into the cloud. Named ‘Nimbus’, the switch to Microsoft Azure Cloud will rapidly speed up scientific discovery processes and allow researchers to carry out more advanced computationally intensive...
Conservative MPs are going to make life for Prime Minister Liz Truss as difficult as their Labour counterparts did for Jeremy Corbyn when he was their leader, political columnist and broadcaster Ayesha Hazarika has told the region’s business leaders. Speaking at the South West CBI’s annual dinner, she predicted the political waters would get...
Fewer than one in 10 businesses in the South West have confidence in the UK’s economic prospects, with a record 73% fearful over the impact of inflation, according to new survey. At the same time the number of firms concerned about exchange rates has doubled, with a third of exporters suffering a fall-off in...
Bath’s small businesses and their supply chains can get help to adapt to the new economic and regulatory landscape thanks to a £1.5m fund from the West of England Combined Authority. The Business Growth and Adaptions Grant, which opens for a second round of applications from 19 October, is aimed at enabling small-to-medium enterprises...
Pharmaceutical firm Vectura has been granted planning permission for a world-class ‘inhalation centre of excellence’ as it looks to expand its operations and develop innovative new treatments. The firm, controversially acquired by tobacco giant Philip Morris International (PMI) £1.1bn a year ago, revealed its plan to build the £58m centre on the Bristol & Bath...
Goughs Solicitors’ latest series of free online seminars for business owners concludes next month with the final session titled Settlement: When and how to do it. The monthly Wednesday Wisdom Webinars, which have been giving up-to-date, relevant and pragmatic employment advice throughout the summer, are led by the firm’s head of employment Rebecca Dennis, pictured. They allow employers the opportunity to...
A defence business that works with navies from NATO countries and allied nations has received an export finance facility worth £2.4m to expand further in international markets. Leafield Logistics secured the funding from the government’s UK Export Finance (UKEF) credit agency to free up its cashflow and support its growth. The firm, based in...
