Finance group BGF’s Bristol office has successfully exited an in-car technology business described as the ‘fitbit for cars and vans’ having more than tripled its initial £3.2m investment in three years. BGF backed Exeter-based Lightfoot in October 2018, with its funding used to drive growth in the pioneering fleet...
Innovative bioplastic food packaging made from seaweed is a step closer to supermarket shelves after the firm behind it secured funding from a group of Bristol investors. Sustainable biotech business Kelpi invented the compostable material to replace single-use fossil fuel plastics, which take hundreds of years to decompose. Over...
Bristol businesses are being urged to support FareShare South West, the region’s largest food redistribution charity, as it prepares to launch its emergency winter campaign FoodStock 2021. FareShare South West, which supplies food to more than 350 frontline organisations, aims to build a stockpile of ambient food with the...
Regional accountancy group Bishop Fleming plans to grow its VAT offering following the appointment of a specialist tax partner. Len Dean joins as VAT partner and will head its VAT team. The move takes the partnership at the firm, which has the largest of its seven offices in Bristol,...
Bristol TV production company Plimsoll Productions, the world’s biggest independent natural history programme maker, has achieved a 65% sales growth over the past year despite the challenges of operating during the pandemic. The firm, which has been backed by mid-market private equity firm LDC since August 2019, clocked up...
The 50% business rate cut for retail, leisure and hospitality firms will bring relief to high streets and their small, independent shops, according to property consultants Cushman & Wakefield’s South West managing partner Tim Davis. “It will have a real impact on businesses that are still recovering from the...
Many businesses in Bristol were hoping for a game-changing Budget to tackle the immense problems they face – but according to the regional branch of the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) this doesn’t feel like one. FSB development manager for Bristol, Bath & South Gloucestershire, Sam Holliday, pictured, said:...
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 Bristol Chamber of Commerce, also claimed the West of England had again missed out...
Business groups have welcomed a number of measures in yesterday’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...
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...
Bristol-based games agency Diva is to host an 11-hour gaming livestream tomorrow to launch charity War Child UK’s Game Action fundraiser. War Child UK – the specialist charity for children caught up in conflict – has set up the ground-breaking new campaign in association with dozens of games content...
Bristol-based Vans 365 has been acquired by Cazoo in a deal that takes Europe’s leading online car dealer into the commercial vehicle retail market for the first time. Vans 365 was set up in 2012 as Van World Group and changed its name in 2018. At the same time it used...
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...
