Business News

Qatar Airways has acquired the Novotel Edinburgh Park Hotel in Scotland, one of the best-located hotels for travellers to Edinburgh and an excellent base for exploring the rest of Scotland. The hotel will continue to be managed and operated under the Novotel brand by Accor which operates more than 3,700 quality hotels worldwide.

"The British economy remains an incredible job creating machine, with employment rising by around 200,000 in the latest quarter to a total of above 31 million for the first time." said Mark Smith, regional chairman at PwC in the Midlands in response to new labour market data.

New house building figures released by NHBC for Q1 2015 show that more than 40,000 new homes were registered in the UK during the first three months of the year, an increase of 18% on the same period last year.

Over 50 buyers attended The Caribbean Tourism Organization’s dedicated MICE networking evening for UK buyers held recently. By partnering with MICE specialist, Global Connect, the event which took place at Gordon Ramsay’s Heddon Street Kitchen, was the first of its kind for the CTO to showcase what the region has to offer UK buyers.

HSBC has launched its most ambitious package of support for Birmingham’s small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), including a £400 million SME fund, one of more than 40 funds to support smaller firms across the country.

A boutique facilitation company which helps companies expand internationally have announced that they will be proactively reaching out to enterprises throughout the world to help them develop their business in Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

To herald the start of INDABA, one of the largest tourism marketing events in the African calendar, Fiona Jeffery OBE - Industry Relations Director, African Travel and Tourism Association - highlights the achievements in Africa of the international water aid charity she established in 1998, Just a Drop.

St Paul’s Square based Italian restaurant, Pasta di Piazza, celebrates its 20^th Anniversary this summer and as part of the ongoing celebrations, the restaurant will be giving away a five star holiday to its native country, Italy, by way of a charity raffle in aid of the Children’s Family Trust in Droitwich.

Debbie Talbot (40) a mumpreneur living in Eccles, Greater Manchester co founded the What's Good To Do.com website back in 2011.  Since that time they have grown the site to an impressive level with no marketing budget to speak of.   

As well as winning the award for Global Travel Retailer of the Year – the most coveted prize at the annual ceremony – Qatar Duty Free also walked away with awards for Airport Travel Retailer of the Year and Best New Shop Opening (since January 2014) for its Marmalade Market concept at Hamad International Airport (HIA).

Microsoft has announced new features in Windows 10 and unveiled a set of software development kits (SDKs) to help developers bring their code for the Web, .NET, Win32, Android and iOS to Windows 10.

BP Shipping has celebrated its 100-year anniversary, making it the longest continually operating company in the BP group.

As political leaders debate about the potential for referendum on the UK’s membership in the EU, a survey of 2,000 members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers shows overwhelming support for the UK staying in the EU.

Research commissioned by MakeItCheaper.com suggests that SMEs will lead voting turnout at the 2015 UK General Election with 93% of SME owners intending to vote and two thirds (67%) encouraging their staff to do the same.

Divine Chocolate, the farmer-owned chocolate company and award-winning social enterprise, has merged its UK and USA businesses.

Christian Toon has has been appointed at PwC in the Midlands as a Senior Manager in the firm’s technology risk team, specialising in cyber security from information management and storage company, Iron Mountain, where he spent almost eight years leading the firm’s information risk programmes across the UK, EU and India.