Innovative West businesses working on pioneering research and development projects can apply for financial help through a £4m innovation fund launched today by the University of the West of England (UWE). Grants of between £25,000 and £150,000 will be available to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as...
Bristol corporate expertise has helped the successful management buyout (MBO) of a Welsh specialist handling equipment firm. Accountants Grant Thornton’s Bristol-based corporate finance team and lawyers from Bristol law firm Osborne Clarke advised on sale of Mangar International, a world leader in inflatable lifting and handling equipment for the...
Fast-growing London-based cocktail bar group Be At One, which is backed by Piper Equity, is to open an outlet in Bristol – its 22nd venue and third outside the capital. The bar, in a unit on the Clifton Triangle formerly occupied by Hermanos, will open on February 26 and...
The controversial privatisation of Royal Mail delivered a major boost to Bristol-based investment managers Hargreaves Lansdown with 27,000 new investors joining to buy shares in the sell-off, it revealed today. In a trading statement to the London Stock Exchange Hargreaves Lansdown said a total of 77,000 new clients signed...
Nearly two thirds of West firms plan to increase wages this year as the region’s economy bounces back from recession, new research shows. This is despite half of the businesses taking part in the Barclays Employers Survey 2014 saying wage pressure from employees was not an issue. However, some...
Calls for a full-scale shake-up of business rates have continued unabated despite the Government pledging a £415m package of relief for small firms. The West of England’s largest business group Business West, which runs Bristol Chamber of Commerce, said while it welcomed the announcement, it amounted to little more...
Accountants Grant Thornton have been appointed to deliver the Investors In People (IIP) standard across the South of England following a competitive tender process. Grant Thornton, which covers the West region from its office in Bristol, will hold the licence from April 1 for a three-year period. This appointment...
The Bristol office of accountancy firm Grant Thornton has advised on the £117m sale of Wiltshire fuel distribution business Watson to US-based global fuel logistics group World Fuel Services. Family-owned Watson, which employs 670 people, will now be combined with World Fuel Services’ existing UK operations. Watson, based at...
Accountants PwC have launched their annual search for the region’s best companies with the 2014 West of England Business of the Year Awards – the region’s most prestigious business accolades. Previous winners of the awards, now in their 26th year, read like a who’s who of the West’s most-respected...
Business West, the organisation behind Bristol Chamber of Commerce, has called on the Bank of England not to raise interest rates despite a further fall in unemployment across the UK. Welcoming the latest labour market figures – which show the national unemployment rate has fallen to 7.1%, its lowest...
Owners and directors of small and medium-sized manufacturers are being invited to a free workshop in Bristol to gain expert advice on a range of financial issues. Staged by the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) in partnership with business and financial advisors Grant Thornton, the event on January 28 will...
Business West, the organisation behind Bristol Chamber of Commerce, has called on politicians to stay out of any decision to increase the Minimum Wage. The plea, by Chamber of Commerce & Initiative executive director James Durie, pictured, comes after Chancellor George Osborne hinted that he may raise the Minimum...
Accountancy and investment management group Smith & Williamson’s Bristol-based corporate tax specialist Paul Bray has been promoted to partner. Paul, pictured, who has worked for the firm since 1996 and heads its small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) team in Bristol, works closely with owner-managers and family-run businesses locally and...
