Top 20 accountancy firm Saffery Champness has added seven recruits to its Clifton offices to work in departments across the firm from private wealth and landed estates to business advisory services. The seven include Alexandra Bray (not pictured), an Oxford University graduate, as a new audit senior, while Katie...
Outsourcing services specialist MITIE has won a contract worth at least £80m with Diageo, the world’s leading premium drinks business. Bristol-based MITIE will supply Diageo with integrated facilities management (FM) and hospitality services throughout its entire UK and Irish property portfolio in what it described as a transformational contract....
Neil Sherreard, managing director of Bristol construction firm Cowlin, today leaves the company he’s spent almost 25 years with to set up a new venture. Neil joined Cowlin in 1987 and worked his way through the ranks, becoming a shareholder in 1996 and managing director in 2000. During his...
Bristol ethical food business Essential Trading will this Friday celebrate its 40th anniversary as a co-operative dedicated to vegetarian, organic, sustainable and ethical trading. It now has an annual turnover of around £12m and employs around 85 people – making it one of the largest successful worker co-operatives in...
The £430m redevelopment of Southmead Hospital in Bristol has been granted the status of National Skills Academy for Construction – a new site-based approach to construction training. This is an employer-led approach to construction training which is being rolled out at 37 significant high profile construction projects across the...
Ascent Scientific, a specialist provider of biochemical reagents which has a production and analytical facility in Bristol, has been acquired by fast-growing firm Abcam for £10m. The deal comprises an initial cash payment of £6m and £4m in Abcam shares which will be issued at 345.58 pence per share....
MITIE, the Bristol-based outsourcing and energy specialist, has been appointed by Essex County Council as preferred partner on a contract that will save the authority an estimated £3.1m a year. Details of the contract which is described as ‘transformational’ are being finalised and will be signed in the coming...
Business confidence among UK firms has slumped to a 26-month low, triggering fears that the economy will go into reverse over the next three months. The gloomy outlook comes from the latest Business Trends report by accountants and business advisors BDO, and reinforces a spate of downbeat surveys over...
The Crown Estate has sold a third of its Cabot Park site at Avonmouth to AXA Real Estate for £10.5m. The deal was sealed on behalf of Midland property specialist Gallan and Stoford which is developing a major regional distribution centre on the 33-acre site. Gallan and Stoford had...
Bristol's position as a leader in robotic innovation will be enhanced next year when it hosts the six-day FIRA RoboWorld Cup – the first time the event has been held in the UK. The cup involves robots playing football and basketball, climbing or running a marathon – but it...
Oil exploration veteran David Bramhill has succeeded again with Wessex Exploration, his Bristol-based company which floated on AIM earlier this year. Its shares were up more than 25% this morning following an announcement from Tullow Oil that the Zaedyus exploration well – in which Wessex has a share –...
Accountants and business advisers Grant Thornton have made two top-level appointments as the firm embarks on a new phase of growth in the South West. Simon Moore, one of the region's leading bankers, joins as a senior consultant from Barclays Corporate, where he was chairman and managing director in...
From Bristol 24-7 www.bristol247.com A £25m waste plant in Avonmouth has been officially opened by Olympic gold medal-winning rower Sir Steve Redgrave. The mechanical biological treatment plant began operating in April and is one of two giant recycling centres in Avonmouth aimed at reducing the amount of waste going...
