Business Support The official publication of the Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce ••••
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New support programmes to help achieve new levels of growth The Chamber will provide one-to-one help to the company to help develop its product or service and ensure it is ready for its new marketplace.
AT THE CHAMBER News desk
The Chamber will also work in partnership with Coventry & Warwickshire Reinvestment Trust (CWRT) to look at grants and other funding opportunities for companies to make themselves exportready or to increase their existing export capabilities.
Members are encouraged to send any news about their firm - new orders, staff, new products, expansions or relocations for publication in C&W in business. Whilst every effort will be made to publish submitted articles, we cannot guarantee inclusion. Send them to: news@cw-chamber.co.uk Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce Chamber House Innovation Village Cheetah Road Coventry CV1 2TL T: 024 76 654321 F: 024 76 450242
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Cllr Susan Juned (left) with Keely Hancox
Businesses in south Warwickshire can tap into three new support programmes to help them achieve new levels of growth. Stratford-on-Avon District Council has announced a new partnership with the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce to deliver three programmes through the new UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), which will run until March 2024.
The second support programme, Accelerated Growth, is targeted at Stratford-based businesses that have been trading for more than two years, from a broad range of sectors including professional services, manufacturing & engineering and creative & digital. Business owners will get access to tailored, one-to-one help from a skilled and experienced business adviser who can support with everything from strategic and financial planning through to marketing and sales. The objective is to help companies with growth potential to expand more quickly.
They have been designed to help companies across the district look at new opportunities for growth – from overseas trade through to improving their online marketing.
The final programme is titled Magnetic Marketing and it will support bricks and mortar retailers with premises across Stratford District to grow their online presence, attract more customers and increase footfall into their store.
The first programme – Growing Global – will help businesses that are either completely new to exporting or firms which already trade globally but want to access different markets.
They will have access to two online workshops as well as one-to-one help from a retail specialist who has successfully run a retail chain of businesses, including in Stratford Town Centre.
The aim is to drive footfall into towns and local centres and bolster business. Keely Hancox, Head of operations at Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “We are thrilled to be working with Stratford-on-Avon District Council to be delivering support to a wide range of businesses across the south of Warwickshire. “The three programmes are all different but all have the aim of supporting businesses to grow which, in turn, will boost the local economy and benefit the area as a whole by creating new jobs and opportunities. “Each programme is different, but they all include an element of one-to-one support because we are keen to ensure that the help we give to businesses is tailored to them individually to ensure they get the maximum benefit.” Cllr Susan Juned, Leader of Stratford-onAvon District Council, said: “This funding stream enables the District Council to work with our partner organisations to achieve positive outcomes and benefits for the District and supporting a programme of business support through different delivery partners. “We hope to continue business support given in Year 2 for Year 3 of the SPF fund, to help address the variety of different issues businesses are facing moving towards zero carbon operations, helping businesses to become more resilient and also helping to support high growth, research intensive and technology-based businesses, to help diversify the economy.”
For more information please contact Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce on 02476 654321 (option 4). Or access https://www.cw-chamber.co.uk/business-support/unlock-the-power-of-growth/
Bank of England meets regional business leaders Inflation is expected to fall to around the five per cent mark by the end of 2023, a leading expert has told businesses in Coventry and Warwickshire.
are that it will reach around the five per cent mark by the turn of the year.
Glynn Jones, the Bank of England’s deputy agent for the West Midlands, met firms in the region to give them an overview of the economy from the Bank’s perspective but also to hear from companies from a range of sectors.
“The Bank has increased base rates as a tool to help bring down inflation but there are still risks to the outlook and the Bank will not hesitate to take further action should it be required to ensure that we bring inflation back to our two per cent target.
Jones warned, however, that getting down to the two per cent inflation target would not be easy.
“Economic growth has been subdued but has so far remained positive. Consumption – an important driver of growth in the UK – has remained resilient but there is little to suggest that growth will not remain quite sluggish for the foreseeable future.”
He said: “There were many factors in the rise in inflation in the UK – we had the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and a huge labour shock, which have all compounded one another. “Inflation has dropped back to 6.7 per cent and our forecasts
“Goods inflation and food inflation has fallen but we’re now seeing fuel prices creep back up.
Tom Mongan, president of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said:
Carol Thomas (Coventry College), Tom Mongan (Chamber), Roger Scott (Lloyds Banking Group), Glynn Jones (Bank of England), Olivia Parrish (Leap People Solutions)
“We were grateful to Glynn Jones for offering an insight into the Bank of England’s currenting thinking when it comes to the economy. “The firms around the table and across Coventry and Warwickshire all have their own story to tell and it’s clear that there is some way to go before
the economy is on the full road to recovery. “To that end, our Annual Conference on November 10 will be an opportunity for firms across the region to come together and hear from a wide range of experts and look at the opportunities and challenges ahead.”
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