An insolvency expert has urged Bath’s directors to seek advice at the first signs of business distress following the release of statistics showing corporate failures have risen by more than 40% over the past year. Philip Winterborne, South West chair of trade body R3, made the plea after third quarter figures from the Insolvency...
Strong trading has continued at Inspecs, the Bath-based glasses designer and manufacturer, with sales rising by nearly $60m (£43.5m) over the past three months as it carries on bedding in two major acquisitions made last year. In a third-quarter trading update to shareholders, the firm said unaudited revenues for the nine months to...
Innovative bioplastic food packaging developed from seaweed is a step closer to supermarket shelves after the Bath firm behind it secured funding. Sustainable biotech business Kelpi invented the compostable material to replace single-use fossil fuel plastics, which take hundreds of years to decompose. Over the past year the company has been developing it...
Business West, the region’s largest business group, said many firms would “remain muted in their enthusiasm” for a Budget that failed to address the scale of the post-Covid challenges they face. The organisation, which runs Bath Chamber of Commerce, also claimed the West of England had again missed out when it came to government...
Business groups have welcomed a number of measures in Wednesday’s Budget but said Chancellor Rishi Sunak could have done more to encourage investment. The CBI, which speaks on behalf of 190,000 businesses of all sizes and sectors, described it overall as business friendly, with its director-general Tony Danker saying the Chancellor had shown a...
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has delivered his Autumn Budget and Spending Review. The main points are: Chancellor began speaking at 12:34pm Employment is up and wages are rising, he said. Budget prepares for a new economy post-Covid, he said. “An economy fit for a new age of optimism.” Higher inflation was a global problem, said the...
The potential of hydrogen to transform the West of England’s economy, from its transport to the way its homes are heated, is to be explored by a new consortium of businesses and universities. The group, which includes many of the region’s largest firms such as Airbus and EDF, was launched at an event at...
A precision engineering firm founded in the 1960s and which now works with some of the region’s largest blue-chip manufacturers is looking forward to a bright future under new ownership. Frome-based Keyford has been acquired by the Edwin Lowe Group of Birmingham for an undisclosed sum in a deal supported by the...
The monthly insolvency statistics published by The Insolvency Service for September show the number of registered company insolvencies were at their highest since the start of the first UK lockdown in March 2020. This is effectively a rebalancing back to normalised insolvency levels across the economy, after the government support measures during the Covid...
Defence manufacturing group Avon Protection has said it is set for growth next year after overcoming delays in military orders from the US. In a trading update the Melksham-headquartered firm, which specialises in protective gear, masks and breathing equipment for the military and first-responder markets, said its medium-term bounce back was underpinned by a strong...
