A Bath firm developing innovative bioplastic food packaging from seaweed has secured more than £3m to take its technology another step closer to everyday use. Sustainable biotech business Kelpi invented the unique compostable material to replace single-use fossil fuel plastics, which take hundreds of years to decompose. The seed round, led by Bristol-based specialist...
Future, the Bath-headquartered global media group, has said its diverse range of products – which spans magazines, websites and digital marketing platforms in areas as different as fashion, finance and tech – is protecting it from the consumer spending slowdown. The highly acquisitive group also recently added two more businesses to its stable –...
Bath’s Christmas Market, which returned last year for the first time since 2019, attracted an estimated half-a-million visitors, according to official figures just released – making it one of the most successful in its 20-year history. Footfall was round 25% up on pre-2019 average and while the financial impact of the market has not...
A new way to make money from dairy farm waste is to be commercialised by a start-up business founded by a former University of Bath mechanical engineering student. Frome-based BioFactory secured funding from Innovate UK and Defra for a 12-month feasibility study via the Farming Innovation Programme after developing a modular anaerobic digester (AD). ...
Work will soon get underway to maintain historic Bath property Fairfield House, once the home of the exiled Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I and now an important community base. Owner Bath & North East Somerset (B&NES) Council has started a formal partnership with Fairfield House Bath Community Interest Company (CIC) on a significant maintenance...
More than 100 firms across the West of England have signed up to a regional Good Employment Charter which pledges to pay staff a Real Living Wage and clamp down on the use of zero-hours contracts. Introduced by Metro Mayor Dan Norris as part of a campaign against poverty pay, it also commits employers...
Experienced business coach Mark Tanner has joined the team at business consultancy Be Astute as it enters a new phase of growth. Frome-based Be Astute founders, husband-and-wife team Julia and Bill Stock, described Mark as the perfect addition to the team due to his “immensely credible fountain of knowledge, one that can really help...
Bath Spa University is celebrating possibly one of the most unusual accolades in its history – Gold Accreditation for being a hedgehog-friendly campus. The award, from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, comes just a year after the university achieved Silver status. Hedgehogs are listed as vulnerable under the International Union for Conservation of Nature...
Defence manufacturer Avon Protection has continued its recovery from a difficult couple of years by receiving its second delivery order, worth $6.7m (£5.5m), from the US government for its Advanced Combat Helmet. The Melksham-based group, which specialises in protective gear, masks and breathing equipment for the military and first-responder markets, said rigorous testing was still ongoing on...
Travel trade buyers and tour operators from around the world have visited Bath as part of a new campaign by tourist bosses to boost the number of overseas visitors to the city. Prior to the pandemic, around 1m international tourists a year came to the West of England – delivering a major boost to...
