The days of the South West’s family-owned firms automatically being passed on to their founders’ offspring are long gone, with few now believing in a right to succession, according a new survey. Instead, most owners want to ensure their offspring are qualified to take over on merit not blood ties and should only gain...
The woman who ran a female-only software business in the 1960s and strived to change the gender makeup of the technology sector is set to inspire a new generation of women in business as the annual Festival of Female Entrepreneurs returns to the West of England this week. Dame Stephanie Shirley, now 85, pictured...
Specialist IT group SCISYS’s £78.9m acquisition by Canadian tech giant CGI has been given the go-ahead by UK competition watchdogs. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had decided not to refer the deal to a phase 2 investigation based on the information available to it. The CMA launched its merger inquiry on...
Specialist IT group SCISYS expects its £79m acquisition by Canadian tech giant CGI to be completed before the end of this year it said this week as it revealed a 2% increase in half-year revenues. Directors at the Chippenham-headquartered group, which supplies innovative software and IT services to the space, government, media, commerce and...
A pioneering campaign aimed at helping businesses across the West of England prepare for life after Brexit is in the running for a top national award. Trading Through Brexit (TTB) was launched in October last year by Business West, the region’s largest business group and the organisation behind the Swindon & Wiltshire Initiative. Realising...
Ping Pong Fight Club, the uber-cool inter-company tournament and party, returns to the region in November – and the gauntlet has been thrown down to Swindon firms to come and battle it out on the tables. Last year’s inaugural event witnessed some incredible table-top action from a clutch of South West businesses and this...
MEET South West, the region’s only trade show dedicated to the event industry, returns next January with its organisers promising it will be even bigger and better. The inaugural show in January this year sold out with more than 350 event professionals attending to hear expert speakers provide practical insight to support them in...
The South West will suffer more than any other region if the UK crashes out of the EU with no deal, the CBI said today. The national business organisation has written to all the region’s MPs urging them to find a Brexit deal that works for the South West and warning that a no...
Business West, the organisation behind the Swindon & Wiltshire Inititiatve, provides the best business advice, guidance and support of any chamber in the country, a new report has revealed. It is also the top-grossing and most-profitable among the 53 accredited chambers across Britain, research by membership group the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) shows. ...
The boss of the region’s largest business organisation has again slammed Westminster for “playing political chess” while the health of the economy is in the balance. Phil Smith, pictured, managing director at Business West – which runs the Swindon & Wiltshire Initiative – said firms were paying the price for the failure of a...
