The new lockdown measures announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson over the weekend will be devastating to many Swindon firms despite their best efforts to make themselves Covid-safe, the region’s largest business organisation warned today. Most businesses will have to close from Thursday as the country enters its second lockdown, with staff being urged to...
Swindon firms are being urged to prepare now for the end of the Brexit transition period on January 1 next year, despite many questions of how it will work in practice remaining unanswered. The government has launched a campaign for businesses with the strapline ‘Time is running out’ as talks with the EU over...
Business West, the group that runs the Swindon & Wiltshire Initiative, has welcomed the latest government job and self-employment support measures – but warned that many firms, including those in the Swindons vital hospitality sector, continue to miss out. The new support package was announced last Thursay by Chancellor Rishi Sunak as businesses in...
A scheme to connect Swindon’s food and drink producers with Chinese consumers with an appetite for high-quality British produce has been launched by Business West. The Great British Food Programme, in which Business West is partnering with Regroup China, a digital marketing agency which specialises in driving Chinese cross-border eCommerce sales, will also allow...
Firms will ‘despair’ over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s comments today that they should prepare for a no-deal Brexit, the region’s biggest business organisation said. Describing the move as “another period of political theatre”, Business West managing director Phil Smith said firms across the West of England were already under unprecedented pressure from the impact...
New support for firms forced to close by law because of coronavirus restrictions by Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been welcomed by Business West, the organisation behind the Swindon & Wiltshire Initiative. The scheme, under which the government will pay two-thirds of the wages of staff working for these firms, was announced on Friday. It...
Business West, the region’s largest business organisation, has launched a directory service to help signpost firms to vital advice, opportunities and support services. Back to Business is an evolution of Business West’s highly successful Trading Through Coronavirus platform, which has been visited by more than 100,000 businesses across the South West. It has been launched...
Tech businesses from Swindon are being invited to apply to join Tech 4 Good South West, a new initiative designed to stimulate international growth and expansion into the US, India and Singapore. The free programme will launch next month and applicants are invited to submit a pitch by next Wednesday, October 7. With the Global Innovation...
Food and drink producers from Swindon and its surroundings had the opportunity to meet commercial trade officers working across the world this week at the first-ever virtual Meet the Market Expert event. Some 80 businesses booked meetings with more than 50 global trade officers representing 40-plus countries. In total more than 450 meetings took place,...
Measures in Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s Winter Economic Plan have been welcomed as “bold steps” and “a shot in the arm” for industry by the UK’s leading business groups. The CBI said it would save hundreds of thousands of viable jobs while the British Chambers of Commerce said it would help many companies hold on...
