Business News

The two Wolverhampton companies that braved the Wolves’ Den and came out with £10,000 of KPMG business support have been announced. City of Wolverhampton Council joined forces with the leading professional services firm during Business Week to offer local SMEs the chance to pitch to a panel of experienced business professionals and partners from KPMG.

Branston, one of the UK's biggest potato suppliers, has officially opened its £5 million prepared potato factory extension in partnership with Tesco. Producing around 3,500 tonnes of potatoes each week for sale in Tesco stores across the UK, the new factory expansion includes the introduction of two new batch peeling lines, making it one of the largest peeling and processing facilities in the UK.

The British Safety Council has announced the winners of this year’s Sword of Honour and Globe of Honour awards for the exemplary management of health, safety and environmental risks by businesses around the world. The 64 Sword of Honour and 18 Globe of Honour winning companies have demonstrated to an independent adjudication panel a proven track record of excellence in managing risks to workers’ health and safety and/or to the environment from the organisations’ activities.

The harvest is now underway in the UK, with growers across the country reporting that 2016 is shaping up to be a high quality vintage. Pickers were out in the vineyards as early as mid-September in some parts of the UK, but the main bulk of grapes is being harvested now and over the next fortnight.

MPs and other opinion formers taking a break from the Conservative Party Conference last week were told that devolution could be one way to achieve an education system that was attuned to local business needs. Francis Martin, President of the British Chambers of Commerce, told a fringe event at the Conference that business needed a more locally-focused education system to meet the challenges of future growth.

International visitors spent an extra £800 million across the nations and regions of Britain in the last year as a result of work by the national tourism agency VisitBritain, latest figures show.  This means that every £1 invested in VisitBritain’s activities resulted in an overseas visitor spending £23 in Britain. Domestic visitors spent an additional £97.2 million in England as a result of VisitEngland’s 2015 ‘Holidays at Home are GREAT’ campaign.

In a year of turbulence, now more than ever it is clear that the retail industry is having to up its game. This necessity led to Hollywood Monster’s thought leadership event that took place at its Tyseley headquarters earlier this week and gave the industry’s leading experts congregate to discuss what’s in-store for the sector’s future. From big names going bust to the ominous uncertainty of Brexit; from the potential of digital marketplace to the evolution of the physical retail landscape; from £7million Christmas adverts to infomercials on Youtube: no subject was out of bounds.

A major event designed to boost trade links between the West Midlands and Frankfurt is taking place on 17 November at the headquarters of Birmingham Chamber, in Harborne Road, Edgbaston. The business briefing will be attended by many leading figures from the German city, including the Lord Mayor, Peter Feldmann, and Eric Menges, president and CEO of FrankfurtRheinMain GmbH, who will deliver a keynote address.

Black Country Chamber of Commerce has been awarded with the Armed Forces Covenant Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) Bronze Award. This follows on from their commitment made to the Armed Forces in May 2016 when the Chamber signed up to the Armed Forces Covenant. The ERS recognises commitment and support from UK employers for defence personnel. The scheme comprises bronze, silver and gold awards for employers who support those who serve or have served in the Armed Forces, and their families.

Paul Kehoe has taken over as Birmingham Chamber president with a three-point pledge for his two-year term. The chief executive of Birmingham Airport is succeeding Greg Lowson, head of office at lawyers Pinsent Masons in Birmingham, at the Chambers annual meeting at University College Birmingham.

SMEs across the Black Country are being given the opportunity to grow their businesses by tapping into a new European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funded scheme led by the City of Wolverhampton Council, working in partnership with Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall councils. The capital and revenue grant scheme, Black Country Transformational GOLD (BCT GOLD) delivers financial assistance and access to development support to businesses across Wolverhampton, Walsall, Sandwell and Dudley.

Harvard Global Diversity Leadership award winner Charlotte Sweeney, has announced the release of her debut book ‘Inclusive Leadership - The Definitive Guide to Developing and Executing an Impactful Diversity and Inclusion Strategy – Locally and Globally’. Set to be a practical how-to guide to diversity and inclusion, the book has been co-authored by Fleur Bothwick OBE, head of Diversity and Inclusive Leadership for the EMEIA region at EY and draws on their collective real life experience.

Ryan Ackroyd, the man who famously hacked Sony, Fox and the FBI, is guest speaker at a thought-provoking Cyber Security seminar, which is being hosted by the IT Solutions team at PKF Cooper Parry. Ryan, a former black hat hacker, is one of a panel of experts taking part in the event at the firm’s East Midlands Airport office on Friday 4 November from 9am - 12.30pm.

New figures from VisitEngland show that Brits spent a record-breaking £5.5 billion on day trips across England in August, the highest spend recorded for a single month since the day-tripping survey began in 2011. August also saw the highest number of day trips taken in any month since 2012, with 151 million day trips across England, up 14% on August 2015.

A new EU vehicle testing system aimed at preventing any repeat of the VW emissions scandal has been unveiled by West Midlands MEP Dan Dalton. Mr Dalton's report, presented to the European Parliament's Internal Market Committee today, proposes a rigorous programme of assessment and market surveillance by individual countries to be policed by other countries through peer review. The European Commission would oversee the process, checking the performance of national authorities every three years and having the power to take action against those that do not meet the required standards.

Tesco has revealed over 1.5 billion single-use carrier bags have been saved by Tesco customers in England since the introduction of the Government bag charge a year ago. The figures represent an incredible 72% fall in the use of single-use plastic bags being used in Tesco stores. Tesco customers shopping on tesco.com have also dramatically reduced the number of bags they use, with 57% of online shoppers selecting 'bagless' deliveries.