The Citizen Gloucestershire

Tracey's Leadership Shines

RISING through the ranks of childcare, Gloucestershire nursery manager Tracey Wilce is now in the running for a Woman in Business award. Tracey, of The Old Station Nursery at Imjin Barracks in Innsworth, has been nominated in the Rising Star of the Year category of the 2012 Citizen and Echo Women in Business Awards. The nursery, which opened 18 months ago, is for military families moving back from Germany as part of the headquarters of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, based at the barracks.

Racecourse 'Proud' to Sponsor Awards

THIS is set to be a very busy year at Cheltenham Racecourse, kicking off in January with the first Women in Business Awards Networking Breakfast in the scenic Panoramic Room at the racecourse. Then on Thursday, March 29, Cheltenham Racecourse is hosting The Women in Business Awards in The Centaur and is sponsoring the New Business of the Year Award. Cheltenham Racecourse is proud to be involved with these prestigious awards, which are outstanding for raising the awareness of women in business...

Edf Energy's Leading by Example

EDF Energy is sponsoring a category in The Citizen and Echo's 2012 Apprenticeships Awards, we can reveal. The energy supplier is sponsoring the Higher Apprentice of The Year category in the awards, which are in association with Clarkson Evans. EDF Energy recruited three apprentices at its Barnwood offices near Gloucester last summer. This marked the first time that the energy company had employed apprentices at its operational support centre in Gloucestershire. The company plans to recruit ar...

Trainees Help Firm Succeed

APPRENTICES have helped a Gloucestershire pumps firm achieve a record year and now it is up for an apprenticeship award. Coleford's SPP Pumps has been nominated for the Apprenticeship Development Award in the Gloucestershire Apprenticeships Awards 2012 in association with Clarkson Evans. Some 12 awards are up for grabs in The Citizen and Echo-backed initiative, which is a chance to give hard-working young people the recognition they richly deserve. The company, which supply service and advice...

Room for Optimism Despite Gdp Decline

BUSINESS leaders in Gloucestershire remain optimistic despite latest economic figures showing the UK is on the brink of slipping back into recession. The UK's economy suffered a worse-than- expected 0.2 per cent contraction in the final quarter of 2011, it was revealed last week. The Office for National Statistics' figure marks the first time the UK's gross domestic product (GDP-total value of the country's overall output of goods and services) has fallen since the final quarter of 2010 when ...

Protocol Will Protect Commercial Tenants ; Legal Update Andrew Cave, Head of the Property Litigation Team, at Harrison Clark

THE end of a commercial lease is often dreaded by businesses who face a potentially crippling demand from their landlord for the cost of repairs and redecoration. Historically, the landlord has been in the driving seat, but commercial tenants can now benefit from much-needed protection against overinflated and sometimes spurious dilapidations claims.

Pounds 400k Investment Seals Bright Future

A BROCKWORTH-based manufacturer of sealed glass units for windows is bucking the economic gloom with a Pounds 400,000 investment in a new plant and the prospect of creating more jobs. Hourglass Seal last week unveiled new state-of-the-art machinery which will enable it to step up production from 2,000 to 3,500 units a week. The company is part of Customade Group which also owns Customade (UK) at Stonehouse which employs 150 making windows, doors and conservatories and Fineline which produces ...

Renishaw Sees Record Revenues

RENISHAW Plc has announced record Pounds 147 million in revenue for the last six months of last year - but the group's profit levels and earnings per share fell - its interim results have revealed. The Wotton-under-Edge firm recorded Pounds 147.149 million of revenue in the six months to December 31, 2011, up 11 per cent from the previous 12 months. Its profit before tax stood at Pounds 31.170 million however, an 11 per cent fall year-on-year, and earnings per share were 34.7p, compared with ...

Firm Bucks Recession to Nurture Business Growth

AN international recruitment company says it is set for growth after securing funding from Lloyds Bank Wholesale Banking and Markets to support future development of the business. Stonehouse-based Omega Resource Group, specialises in recruitment for the technical, engineering and industrial sectors, with clients in aerospace, the automotive industry and oil and gas distribution. In the last year, the firm has swelled its staff numbers by more than 40 in response to increased demand for its se...

'Best Decision I Ever Made'

ONE hundred new businesses are being urged to come forward and take on an apprentice as the 2012 Gloucestershire Apprenticeship Challenge is launched. Last year, in a Citizen and Echo-backed campaign, Gloucestershire businesses smashed the campaign target of creating 100 apprenticeships in 100 days, by employing 119 apprentices, but this year they are being encouraged to go even further. The campaign, which is run by economic development company GFirst in partnership with Gloucestershire Coll...

Business Breakfast Will Provide Food for Thought

GLOUCESTERSHIRE College will host a free Business Hub Breakfast for SMEs in Gloucestershire on Tuesday, February 7, to mark Apprenticeship Week 2012. The free breakfast event will see Matthew Clayton, partner at Rickerbys solicitors, presenting his 'Top five employment tips for 2012", covering a range of topics including social media and agency workers. Described as "solutions-focused", Matthew is consistently recognised as a leading employment law practitioner by the independent legal direct...

Landowners Urged to Invest in Solar Energy ; Business News

COMMERCIAL property consultant Bruton Knowles is urging farmers and other landowners to consider the benefits of investing in solar energy following the probable extension of the current subsidy level until early March 2012. The Government had announced plans to cut subsidy rates from December 12, 2011, 11 days before its consultation about the cuts had ended.

Company to Consult On Sea-Power Project

A SMALL Gloucester-based environmental consultancy has been called in to advise on a major sea-power project in the Channel Islands. Sustainable Direction Ltd is going to look at the effects of creating a network of 2,000 tide-driven generators off the coast of Alderney in the Channel Islands.

New Recruits to Meet Expectations

RECRUITMENT agency Expectations has taken on three new staff to help with increased demand for temporary and skilled workers in the county. The Cheltenham-based company has appointed consultants Jonathan Williams, Felicity Collier and Andrew West to support Gloucestershire's engineering talent and organisations. And the agency has set up a division to specialise in technical and engineering permanent recruitment. Director Victoria Maddock said: "It is apparent that there is a gap in the local...

All Change in Employment? ...Not so Fast ; the Experts

Judging by the noises coming from Trade Unions of late one might think that the rights of employees had been abolished and that employers can now do what they like without fear of finding themselves in tribunal. Employers shouldn't commence their celebrations too quickly. The qualifying period for bringing most unfair dismissal claims will rise to two years from 6 April 2012. However, any employee who has started employment prior to this date will still have the right to bring an employment t...

New Criminal Offence of Squatting

The Government is to introduce a new criminal offence of squatting in residential buildings (see s130 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill). It has long been a criminal offence for a squatter to enter residential premises and refuse to leave after the squatter has been told the property is someone's home or about to be occupied as someone's home (see s7 Criminal Law Act 1977).

Davies and Partners - Practical Legal Solutions

Matters for Disclosure

One element of litigation that business-people often struggle with is disclosure of documents. Rebecca Byczok, an Employment and Commercial Litigation specialist at Davies and Partners Solicitors in Gloucester, sheds some light on this irksome legal issue. If a document is relevant to the issues being litigated, the starting point is that it has to be disclosed to the other side, even if it is harmful to your case.

No Better Time to Blaze Export Trail ; Business People

THE huge opportunities for exporting to China were explored at a seminar attended by more than 40 Gloucestershire business men and women last week. The event at Cheltenham's Mayflower restaurant highlighted the pitfalls and huge potential, especially in China's flourishing regional cities, with an inspiring talk from the boss of one Gloucester company which is blazing a trail to the Far East. The seminar, entitled "There is more than one China" was organised by HSBC and Crowe Clark Whitehill ...