A WARM WELCOME FROM OUR CEO

It is with great pleasure I introduce the Spring Edition of our Business magazine ‘Your Business’. In preparation for writing this article I wanted to reflect on previous editions, this led me to the archives and finding the first publication of the Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce magazine which took me back thirty-one years.

Many elements are still the same to this day it featured our Annual Dinner which was held on Friday 13th March 1992 at the Belleisle House Hotel, when this magazine is published our 2023 Annual Dinner will have taken place.

It also highlighted why the Chamber exists which is to serve our members. When taking up post it was really important to me to ensure that our offering to you was right. Over the last few months, I have worked with our membership team to review how we deliver our membership, and this has resulted in the redevelopment of our membership tiers.

In the coming weeks and months the Chamber team will be in touch with you in advance of your membership anniversary to go over what new tier your business will benefit from. Please be reassured those key services and benefits you are familiar with will still be available with some added value elements.

Another key function of Chamber network is to make sure issues being faced by business are heard by policymakers. Our Quarterly Economic Indicator has just closed for quarter 1, with the QEI Q1 report arriving in your inboxes soon. The quarter 2 survey will launch mid-May. The quarterly chamber survey is among the most well regarded and respected trackers of business confidence and performance in the Scottish economy, and your feedback through this allows us to lobby for the issues most concerning to your business.

One current example of this is the Deposit Return Scheme due to go ahead in

August despite concerns of business and producers. The industry is not against a fully functional and workable scheme to support the net zero agenda but in it’s current form there still seems to be more questions than answers which could lead to many failed SME businesses.

I want to thank those members who have already shared their concerns with me. It is vital that we keep feeding these into Government to support a delay to the implementation of the scheme.

Claire Baird CEO of Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce