BUSINESS COMMENT
She Grows Veg lays fresh groundwork for female entrepreneurs
Women historically faced a ‘glass ceiling’ in business. Now it seems they’ve hit a ‘cash ceiling’ too. The all-female team at Suffolk firm, She Grows Veg, battled against bias in funding and support to become a thriving start-up on...
Falling fortunes or success in the making for SMEs?
As 2024 fades into history, Novuna Business Finance looks back at a volatile year for small businesses
Last summer suggested a resurgence in growth outlook was on the cards for small businesses in the East of England. The summer period...
Top chocolate maker reveals ‘belts & braces’ makeover for 2025
Fine chocolate manufacturer Gnaw, of Norfolk, started out in 2010 - the tentative next step in an entrepreneurial vision conceived at Norwich Business School by Matt Legon, who specialised in small business transformation and entrepreneurship.
His vision’s first incarnation started...
Repair don’t replace!
Local warehouse, manufacturing, retail, e-commerce, post and parcel and 3PL industries are asked to think what machinery and equipment can be repaired instead of replaced.
Logistics firm Southgate Global, of King’s Lynn, is appealing to customers to consider repair or...
Supply chain predictions for 2025
Southgate Global, of King’s Lynn, share their expectations and predictions for the supply chain industry, and how organisations can best adapt in 2025.
Last year saw continued significant political and economic change globally. Major shifts in power in the US...
Bird flu ‘could wipe out industry’
Efforts to eradicate a massive outbreak of bird flu in Norfolk and Suffolk are in danger of wiping out the industry and the winter could see another peak in cases, leading poultry farmers have warned the Government.
New Anglia Local...
Optimism remains high for private sector business
Local businesses are reporting a mixed bag of results for trade, with positive news on the export and employment fronts, but a slowdown in overall output.
While growth among manufacturers and the service sector remains strong, it has eased to...
World-class manufacturers unite in Alliance
Manufacturing across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is about to become more globally competitive with the launch of a new sector network, The Smart Manufacturing Alliance.Â
The Alliance, launched in October 2021, is a joint venture between economic development company, Opportunity Peterborough,...
Covid-19 and Future Planning: Five tips on making your team and your business more agile
The business world has changed and lots of people like myself, who enjoy working in an office, will need to work remotely from time to time.
Over the last 18 months, I have been so proud of how our team...
New plans to bring economic, environmental and social benefit across the Fens in UK first
New cross-sector taskforce will tackle climate resilience for local communities
An ambitious new multi-agency taskforce seeks to bring renewed prosperity to the Fens through a radical new approach to managing land and water resources. Future Fens Integrated Adaptation will deliver...
Survey reveals optimism of Peterborough SMEs
Peterborough’s SME businesses believe there is a mixed outlook for firms in the region, but that trends demonstrate stronger performances than in 2020, according to a new report.
The 2021 Greater Peterborough Survey, undertaken in March by UK-wide regional accountancy...
Streamline your Business Processes with CRM
When it comes to productivity, it is a well-known fact that the UK’s averages are below other G7 countries and well below where it should be. But there’s no reason your own business can’t buck that trend. Part of...
Social scientists reflect on our post-Brexit future
In February, UK in a Changing Europe, an authoritative body based at King’s College London promoting independent research into the complex and ever evolving relationship between the UK and the EU, published a comprehensive report entitled Brexit & Beyond.
Over...
Market towns focused on Covid recovery win millions in Combined Authority grants and partner funding
Board members of Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority have unanimously voted to approve 22 new project proposals, totalling £4.1 million in grant funding, under the Market Towns Programme for Fenland, Huntingdonshire and East Cambridgeshire.
Ranging from smart technology to improve...
Unemployment rate hits five-year high – East of England
Jonathan Insley, Senior Associate in Birketts’ Employment Team said:
“Latest figures released on 26 January 2021 by the Office of National Statistics give further insight into the continuing economic impact in this region.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/headlinelabourforcesurveyindicatorsfortheeastofenglandhi06
The ONS data shows that 4.8% of those...
LESSONS LEARNT FROM A PANDEMIC
In response to COVID-19, we have seen some extraordinary examples of rapid and agile collaboration across the Cambridge Cluster. How can we capitalise on these experiences to do things better and faster in the future?
I recently introduced Beyond the pandemic, a...
NEW ROUTES TO MARKET FOR HISTORIC HUBS
Rejuvenating the 11 market towns in his patch is a priority for the Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, James Palmer.Â
The market towns, an integral part of the local combined authority’s industrial strategy, now stand to share in a £13m...
NEW HAND TAKES THE HELM
The New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership has appointed business woman C-J Green as its new chair.
Co-founder and executive director of BraveGoose, a technology-driven human resources advice solution, she succeeds Doug Field, who served in the role for three years.
C-J...
TOURISM RECOVERY PLAN KICKS OFF
A campaign to kick-start Norfolk and Suffolk’s tourism industry and put it ‘top of mind’ for holidaymakers planning a staycation has been launched.
Attractions, hotels, theatres and other businesses in the region’s £5bn visitor economy have felt the full force...
REVIVING THE BUSINESS HEART AND SOUL OF A SEASIDE TOWN
Multi-million pound plans are afoot to return Great Yarmouth to its former glory.
Great Yarmouth Borough Council has set the wheels in motion of a £49m regeneration package designed to revive the town centre as a vibrant economic, cultural and...
UK mid-market permanently changed by pandemic upheaval
The majority of UK mid-market businesses (88%) have made fundamental changes to their business model during the pandemic, with half also planning to continue with the new model going forward.Â
That’s according to new research from Grant Thornton’s International Business...
The 2020 Vision – Fast Forward
Emile Stuy, Export Director, Anker Stuy Coatings Ltd, Peterborough
As a Dutch businessman with a company in the UK, I predict that there will be some hysterical weeks coming up after the official Brexit moment. This will, of course, be stirred...
Looking to the future – 2020 Vision
What does business in East Anglia look like in 2020, HELEN COMPSON asked the recently-appointed head of the New Anglia Growth Hub. And, importantly, where does he believe the growth will come from?
Richard Glinn is better placed than most...
SWIMMING AGAINST THE TIDE
There’s a Dutch saying that posits the theory swimming against the tide creates bigger champions, as Emile Stuy tells HELEN COMPSON.
It’s a rough translation and doesn’t rhyme in English the way it does in Dutch, he says with a...
New year, new decade …new you?
With traffic congestion and the health of the nation at a crossroads, maybe this is the year your company will take a right-hand turn - down a cycle track.
For the incentives are there, courtesy of Her Majesty’s Government, to launch...
The Great Opportunity
Did you know that the East (Norfolk and Suffolk) contributes over £35 billion every year to the UK economy? Since 2010 our economy has grown by 9%, outstripping many ‘powerhouse’ areas. With more than 66,000 enterprises and world-renowned centres...
Innovation isn’t just about technology!
There is a tendency to think of innovation in terms of the introduction and application of exciting, life changing new technologies. People like Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison with the telephone and the electric light bulb, and latterly...
Sport and Physical Activity worth £270m a year to the Suffolk economy
A new report has revealed the importance of the Sport and Physical Activity sector to the Suffolk economy.
Undertaken by specialist economic development and regeneration consultancy Hatch Regeneris, the report shows that the sector contributes £270m a year to the...
An insight into the Cambridge economy – What lies ahead for Silicon Fen?
These are rather frantic days for the UK, since several outcomes remain possible following the Brexit referendum in June 2016.
While the government strives to reach a deal with the EU before the UK’s departure on 29 March 2019, recent...
The Future of CRM – Genuine Intelligence From An Artificial Source
The Future of CRM - Genuine Intelligence From An Artificial Source
But the term does seem to get overused and maybe undervalued at times AI is used to describe any type of automation, something which may can often get away...
