Triodos Bank has bought its showpiece Bristol head office for £11m in a move the ethical lender says demonstrates its long-term commitment to the city. Triodos moved into the 30,500 sq ft Grade A office building in Deanery Road in February 2012 – part of an award-winning mixed-use scheme...
Bristol tech businesses are to have access to a £10m specialist investment fund launched in the city this week. Great Western Ventures will back small, fast-growth tech firms with seed funding – so plugging a widely acknowledged gap in the city’s otherwise high-quality business support ‘eco-system’. The fund, backed...
Bristol-based Triodos Renewables has launched a fund to help communities across the UK make shared public buildings more sustainable. The fund, which is administered in collaboration with independent national charity the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE), is available for community buildings near to their 15 renewable energy projects, including...
Confidence among professional services firms is at its highest for more than two decades with most planning to increase spending on recruitment, marketing and IT next year, according to a new survey. Some 99% of respondents to accountancy firm Smith & Williamson’s annual professional practices survey said they were...
Accountancy, investment management and tax group Smith & Williamson welcomed more than 400 business owners, directors, professional advisors, private individuals and trustees to its annual client event at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA). Guests networked with members of Smith & Williamson’s 190-strong Bristol team at the drinks...
The corporate deals market has bounced back in the South West and is on course for its strongest year since 2010, according to an analysis of recent mergers and acquisitions published by accountancy firm Grant Thornton. Some 142 deals – ranging from acquisitions to management buyouts and flotations –...
SunLife’s social media and outreach manager Sam Gillies has been named Young Marketeer of the Year while the Bristol-based insurer also beat off stiff competition from Aviva and others to win the Content Marketing prize in the Financial Services Forum Awards. SunLife created an entertaining content marketing campaign which...
The CBI welcomed the spending review’s commitment to longer-term investment in the economy but said there was a sting in the tail in the size and scope of the £3m apprenticeship levy. Director-general Carolyn Fairbairn said: “Businesses will be pleased to see the Chancellor staying the course on deficit...
Bristol business experts have given a broadly upbeat reaction to this week’s Autumn Statement and Spending Review. James Durie, pictured below, chief executive of Bristol Chamber of Commerce & Initiative – part of Business West – said it contained some positive news for the city-region. “Once again the ‘builder’...
Bristol’s Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone is to be made bigger to help pay for the much-needed upgrade of Temple Meads station. The extension of the 70-hectare (173-acre) zone, which has already attracted around 2,000 jobs to the area, was included in the announcement of 26 new enterprise zones by...
Chancellor George Osborne has delivered his Autumn Statement and Spending Review. These are the main points: Chancellor says five years ago UK economy was in crisis. Debt will fall this year. £12bn of welfare savings will be delivered in full. Britain has grown faster than any other G7 countries...
An innovative crowdfunding project to raise more than £1m for projects and businesses with positive social and environmental impacts will be launched in Bristol next week. The Better Bristol fund is being set up by Bristol Green Capital Partnership (BGCP), the organisation that helped Bristol win its European Green...
Independent brokers Venture Insurance has found the new offices it needs to act as a base for continued expansion after a long search. Last year the firm announced that a lack of available office space in and around Whiteladies Road in Bristol was frustrating its plans to achieve further...
