Looking at the last six months, a clear picture is emerging of significantly lower EU imports to the UK than three years ago, with a smaller reduction in exports to the EU.
Winner of Winners
MEMBERS OF GREATER MANCHESTER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
St Ann’s Hospice provides palliative and end of life care to thousands of people but can only do that by constantly evolving – generating millions of pounds a year so patients with cancer and other life-limiting illnesses can access the very best, specialist care at a time which for many is one of the most vulnerable in their life.
They’re a complex multi-million-pound business, comprising a charity and trading company. The Hospice has core clinical services delivered across two sites and via a range of community and outreach services, as well as twelve high street shops, a lottery, online retail outlets, and multiple specialist teams.
Chamber of the Year – UK
Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce is a high-performing Chamber that has demonstrated a range of ways to support its members, pulling out all the stops to assist them through the pandemic. As a result, their membership numbers remain positive as businesses begin to recover from the previous disruption.
This Chamber has engaged in a variety of initiatives to continue their wide range of support to members including:
Chamber of the Year – International
From 2019 to 2021 the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong saw a challenging time, navigating the impact of political unrest alongside the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected their membership numbers. However, implementing initiatives, such as those outlined below, has turned this around and they now have a steady flow of new members looking to join.
To continue their wide range of support to members, the Chamber has engaged in the following initiatives:
The Equality Trailblazer – Diversity and Inclusion Award
MEMBERS OF GREATER MANCHESTER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Law firm Freeths are consistently driving positive change across a number of D&I areas to provide equal opportunities and eradicate discrimination; they have clear objectives and action plans, track their progress, maintain accountability, and commit to stretching targets. This work is structured to provide both internal and external outcomes, to benefit not only their workforce but also our communities and stakeholders.
From an HR perspective, they have embedded D&I into recruitment and onboarding processes (unconscious bias training and blind CV screening, for example), training programmes, performance appraisals, succession planning and promotion pathways.
The Game Changer – Entrepreneur of the Year
MEMBERS OF DEVON & PLYMOUTH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Founder Claire Robinson set up Extra Help in 2010, determined to bring high quality, much needed, reliable home help and domestic support to the elderly in Plymouth. Initially doing home help work herself, Claire soon expanded the business by taking on team members to support more clients.
After the model proved to have worked, it was then advertised as a franchise opportunity in 2011, which enabled people hundreds of miles away to bring the same high-quality home help to people in their local area. Extra Help now has 35 franchised locations around the UK, servicing an area of 3.5 million homes, making it one of the largest home help franchises in the UK.
The Global Player - Export business of the Year
MEMBERS OF DORSET CHAMBER
Founded in Dorset in 1995, Field International supports and supplies most of the major airlines and MROs worldwide with licensed aircraft tooling and ground support equipment, employing 50 highly-qualified personnel in Dorset and fast-approaching 200 employees worldwide.
Through ambitious global expansion targets and a focus on distributed manufacturing, they have experienced 30% year-on-year growth right up until the pandemic hit and are proud to enjoy an impressive international presence in key areas across the world.
The Planet Saver – Green Business of the Year
MEMBERS OF SUSSEX CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Opus Innovations is a healthcare products company focussed on launching innovative and sustainable solutions. Opus has won local awards as a result of its determination to develop and sell its revolutionary and multi-award-winning eco-sanitiser ‘AQUAINT’ internationally.
In May 2018 Opus identified a gap in the wet wipes market as the vast majority of wipes contain high levels of plastic. In just six months Opus launched its own brand of ‘My Happy Planet’ wipes, which are 100% biodegradable, 100% home compostable and100% plastic-free. They are ultra-pure and are made from FSC certified wood pulp.
The Problem Solver – Business Diversification Award
MEMBERS OF GREATER MANCHESTER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
St Ann’s Hospice provides palliative and end of life care to thousands of people but can only do that by constantly evolving – generating millions of pounds a year so patients with cancer and other life-limiting illnesses can access the very best, specialist care at a time which for many is one of the most vulnerable in their life.
They’re a complex multi-million-pound business, comprising a charity and trading company. The Hospice has core clinical services delivered across two sites and via a range of community and outreach services, as well as twelve high street shops, a lottery, online retail outlets, and multiple specialist teams.
Looking at the last six months, a clear picture is emerging of significantly lower EU imports to the UK than three years ago, with a smaller reduction in exports to the EU.
The latest figures confirmed a significant uptick in growth in November, before the emergence of Omicron and the implementation of Plan B. This is likely to be followed by a modest fall in output in December and January, as consumer caution to socialise and spend, and mounting staff absences limit activity.
Businesses are continuing to tell us they are struggling with high levels of absence due to Covid and will welcome the news it is judged safe to further reduce the isolation period. But too many say that staff are also finding it difficult to get the Lateral Flow Tests they need to prove they can return to work.
If agreement can be reached with India on tariff reduction, removing technical barriers to trade in goods and services, and on digital trade it has the best potential of any of the UK’s individual free trade negotiations to date.
