Bristol-based mutual insurer National Friendly has seen a lot of change in its 150 year history. Originally it provided sickness benefits to working men, but also, uniquely among friendly societies at the time, it welcomed working women and children too. This pioneering stance – when poverty, poor education, poor...
Billionaire businessman Stephen Lansdown’s Guernsey-based investment group has entered the air ambulance market with an acquisition made through its Bristol Airport-based aviation services firm Centreline. The deal for the trading name and key assets of Capital Air Ambulance, the UK’s largest air ambulance provider, has added two specially equipped...
Bristol-based specialist energy investment company Thrive Renewables has invested in its first battery storage project in a deal handled by city-headquartered national law firm TLT. Construction of the 5MW scheme at Wicken, just outside Milton Keynes, is due to complete this summer. Thrive and other firms in the...
The latest lockdown will be another “body blow” to Bristol firms, coming after the uncertainty caused by Brexit and lost trade in the run-up to Christmas, the region’s biggest business group has warned. Business West, which runs Bristol Chamber of Commerce, said firms that had survived so far with...
Fresh calls for a rethink of government support for businesses hit by Covid-related restrictions have been made as more parts of the South West join Bristol in Tier 3. While Bristol’s status remained unchanged – having gone from Tier 2 to Tier 3 on Boxing Day – Bath and...
The Bristol office of national law firm Clarke Willmott has advised on the sale of home delivery firm Panther Logistics on its sale to a US group. Clarke Willmott’s corporate team worked with the management of the Northampton-based firm, the UK’s largest independent ‘two-man’ home delivery business, to sell...
Bristol is to move back into Tier 3 on Boxing Day, the government announced today against a backdrop of increasing Covid-19 infection rates across the city. The number of people contracting the virus in the city has risen sharply since the last review of the local tier restriction system...
Business West, the region’s largest business organisation, is aiming to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030 and has introduced three new steps to help it – and firms across the South West – reach the ambitious target. The organisation, which runs Bristol Chamber of Commerce and the Bristol...
Bristol business leaders have welcomed the city’s move into Tier 2 from tomorrow but the group representing its major hotels said it had come too late to enable them to cash in on Christmas and secure any meaningful income. Bristol Chamber and Initiative chief executive James Durie joined the Mayor of...
Construction work has started on a third major office scheme in Bristol in almost as many months – with the latest project hailed as the largest speculative office development in Southern England this year. The 200,000 sq ft EQ scheme, pictured, on Victoria Street is also being described as...
More than two-thirds of high-growth firms in the South West plan to continue to expand next year after adapting for a post-Covid world, new research shows. According to the first survey to chart these businesses during the coronavirus pandemic it has created significant barriers to growth for 58% of...
A golf complex on the outskirts of Bristol run for the past 23 years by a professional golfer has been sold after being marketed for more than £3m. Bristol Golf Centre, pictured, at Hambrook has been bought by Chipping Sodbury-based Golf & Leisure Group for an undisclosed fee from...
The Bristol office of transatlantic law firm Womble Bond Dickinson has advised longstanding client Piper Private Equity on a £7m investment into a specialist villa brand. London-based The Thinking Traveller was launched in 2002 with seven villas in Sicily and today has 220 highly curated properties, including some of the...
