Innovative bioplastic food packaging developed from seaweed is a step closer to supermarket shelves after the Bath firm behind it secured funding. Sustainable biotech business Kelpi invented the compostable material to replace single-use fossil fuel plastics, which take hundreds of years to decompose. Over the past year the company has been developing it...
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 an office in Bath, to 34 while following recent record recruitment its overall headcount...
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 economic turmoil caused by the...
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 Bath Chamber of Commerce, also claimed the West of England had again missed out when it came to government...
Business groups have welcomed a number of measures in Wednesday’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 the Chancellor had shown a...
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 a global problem, said the...
One of Bath’s longest-running charity events – the annual Brain of Bath quiz – is on target to raise around £12,000 for the city’s main homeless charity. The competition’s unique smells round always proves key in the hotly contested event – and this year it helped architectural and urban design company Feilden Clegg...
Taking on new staff has become a top priority for businesses as they continue to recover from the imact of the pandemic, according to a survey conducted by Time Finance, the Bath-headquartered alternative finance provider. It found that one in three firms were planning to expand their workforce, with 90% aiming to start the...
A precision engineering firm founded in the 1960s and which now works with some of the region’s largest blue-chip manufacturers is looking forward to a bright future under new ownership. Frome-based Keyford has been acquired by the Edwin Lowe Group of Birmingham for an undisclosed sum in a deal supported by the...
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 support measures during the Covid...
