More than 70 business leaders attended a reception last night for the launch of the 2012 Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire supplement which will be published in The Citizen and Gloucestershire Echo on June 26.
The event was held at the Cheltenham campus of Gloucestershire College and the supplement is being sponsored by BPE solicitors, Endsleigh Insurance and Hazlewoods accountants who were all represented.
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Speakers and sponsors at the Top 100 Businesses networking event
Ian Mean, Editor in Chief of Gloucestershire Media, publisher of The Citizen and Gloucestershire Echo said the Top 100 supplement was first launched seven years ago and had now become “a bible and barometer of business success in Gloucestershire.”
And he announced some exciting developments in Gloucestershire Media’s business coverage. The launch of a new southwestbusiness website dedicated to Gloucestershire, Bristol and Bath and a new glossy monthly business magazine for the county called Agenda.
Through the website the latest business updates will be emailed out daily to the county’s opinion formers.
“It is quite a big development and there is a lot of interest from our business partners,” said Ian Mean. “The new Agenda magazine is going to humanise business in Gloucestershire.”
He thanked the county’s businesses for supporting Gloucestershire Media’s business publications - both editorially and commercially.
“Kevan Blackadder, Editor of the Gloucestershire Echo, and I believe business is a very good story,” Ian told the business leaders. “But without your partnership we don’t have anything.”
Chris Pitt, marketing manager of Gloucester-based Ecclesiastical, which took the number four spot in last year’s Top 100, said the insurance group was celebrating its 125 anniversary but looking to the future.
As a protector of some of the nation’s most important historic buildings, Ecclesiastical was the real expert in the field and would stick to its principles confident this was the way forward.
He said The Top 100 was a great way to celebrate the thriving businesses in Gloucestershire.
Chris Pockett, head of communications at engineering group Renishaw, said whilst it was good to see new businesses breaking through there was “a certain reassurance” to see the same company names appearing in the Top 100 list year after year.
Renishaw was in a strong position, performing well and seeking 100 skilled people to help ensure the group’s future success. It is also planning to expand its county sites by 280,000 square feet
The group will donate £90,000 to community organisations this year within a 50 mile radius of its Wotton-under-Edge HQ
“Whilst a list that highlights business achievement can be an excellent barometer of the wealth of Gloucestershire , in many ways it can also be a useful guide to the health of Gloucestershire,” said Chris Pockett.
And John Workman, senior partner at BPE solicitors, said: “Business is what makes Gloucestershire. We have a relationship with the business community that is time honoured and this is our heartland.”
He added that despite the recession businesses had learnt to “live with the new reality” and get on with it.
Ruth Dooley, partner at Hazlewoods accountants and business advisers, said it was good to talk up the county’s good business stories and celebrate success.
It was also good to see the private sector become involved with the public sector through initiatives like the Local Enterprise Partnership and have a voice to Government.
“There is a real will to promote business in Gloucestershire,” said Ruth. “We are delighted to be one of Gloucestershire’s growing businesses.
“We are delighted to be supporting the Top 100 supplement.”
Body of missing Harvard Business School student whose wife was pregnant with first child found in harbor - Daily Mail
- Nathan Bihlmaier, 31, was celebrating graduation at Irish pub when he was asked to leave for being too drunk
- Portland Police Chief confirmed it was the 31-year-old, saying: 'It’s a tragic end'
- Was due to graduate on Thursday
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The body of a Harvard Business School student who went missing on Sunday after drinking with friends in an Irish bar has been found.
Nathan Bihlmaier, 31, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, disappeared while celebrating his upcoming graduation with two friends.
Divers returned to the Maine harbor today after finding clothing on Monday belonging to the 31-year-old and later pulled the body from the water around noon.
Portland Police Chief Michael Sauschuck confirmed it was the 31-year-old, saying: 'It’s a tragic end. We had high hopes throughout working with the family and the community to bring Nate home. These weren’t the circumstances that we wanted to.'
Vanished: Harvard student Nathan Bihlmaier, 31, was last seen by the Portland waterfront late on Saturday night. He is pictured with his wife, Nancy
Last seen: He and two friends had visited the Old Port area before Mr Bihlmaier vanished around 1am, divers found a body there today
Found? A missing poster of Nathan Bihlmaier, 31, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is seen today in Portland, Maine. Police have yet to confirm the identity of the body
Police say Bihlmaier was separated from friends after being asked to leave a waterfront pub at 12:20am on Sunday because he was intoxicated. He later failed to return to his hotel.
His wife is pregnant with their first child. He was due to graduate on Thursday.
Police told the Portland Press Herald that Mr Bihlmaier and two friends traveled to Portland for the weekend to celebrate their graduation from business school.
The revelers visited the Old Port area on Saturday night, before Mr Bihlmaier was asked to leave the bar soon after midnight because he was drunk.
Police confirmed that he had 'a little bit too much to drink', but added that he did not cause a disturbance while leaving the bar.
'At that point he left the bar very cooperatively,' police chief Michael Sauschuck said, according to the Bangor Daily News. 'There were no altercations - he just left voluntarily after being spoken to by bar staff.'
He spoke to his friends on the phone, but did not return to the hotel where they were staying. They searched for him to no avail and reported him missing at 9am.
Concerned: His pregnant wife, Nancy Hi Bihlmaier, rushed to the coastal city after receiving the news
'He is a well-established individual from a strong family. He has a wife who is expecting their first child. There is no reason he would [purposely] go missing,' Lt Gary Hutcheson told the Press Herald.
According to his cell phone records, Mr Bihlmaier did not venture far.
Police tracked his movements through his phone signal after he left the bar until his battery apparently died 40 minutes later.
Family: Mr Bihlmaier, originally from Kansas, with his wife Nancy and his parents Cheryl and Steve
Mystery: Police tracked him after he left Ri Ra, pictured, until his phone battery died 40 minutes later
The Coast Guard and the Portland harbormaster worked together with police to launch the underwater hunt for clues.
They even used a cadaver dog on an inflatable raft to search for the man's scent.
His pregnant wife, Nancy Hi Bihlmaier, rushed to the coastal city after receiving the news that her husband was missing, as did around 20 of his business school friends.
A spokesman for the school told the Press Herald: 'His friends describe him as really one top-notch guy.'
Mr Bihlmaier, whose family comes from Kansas but who is now based in the Boston area, specializes in the business of healthcare, and is employed by medical provider Optum.
He has previously worked at several other healthcare firms, as well as for the Department of Health and Human Services.
Money becomes new church battleground - The Guardian
The Rev Paul Perkin seemed bewildered by the question: what was his take on the latest scheme for conservative evangelical churches to withhold money from the rest of the Church of England in order to keep it out of the hands of liberals, gay people or women priests?
"I can't talk about that," he said. "You'll have to ask James Paice." Both men are vicars in south London. And both are directors of the company set up last month to implement this scheme, the Southwark Good Stewards Company. It is the latest, and perhaps the most serious, move in a bitter power struggle within the CofE and the wider Anglican communion.
Not contributing to central funds could represent a serious threat to the rest of the CofE, whose cohesion depends in part on a redistribution of money from rich, largely suburban and middle-class parishes to the inner cities and the countryside where congregations are too small and the buildings too old to be economically sustainable.
Although the Good Stewards Company claims not to be separating from the rest of the CofE, this reading is plausible only if you assume it is the rest of the CofE that has separated from Christianity.
The money will be made available only to churches that commit themselves to a rejection not just of homosexuality, but of liberalism: they must sign "in good faith" a declaration that they will "reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed … Pray for them and call on them to repent and return to the Lord." Such people include the present archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.
The involvement of Perkin in this protest brings it very close to the heart of the institutional church. His is one of the most prosperous and well connected parishes in England: St Mark's, Battersea Rise, in south London, which hosted an international meeting of conservative bishops last month. Apart from encouraging others to hold back money, it is also preparing a network of sympathetic lawyers in case the church fights back.
St Mark's has a long history of financial and political links with conservative churches outside England, but it also stands very close to the central networks of the CofE. Until last year, the church's most senior civil servant, William Fittall, who is the secretary general of its governing body, the General Synod, was a regular worshipper there, a licensed reader who sometimes preached for them.
Before last month's meeting, the congregation were treated to a sermon from the archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, one of the leaders of the conservative movement, who said: "The world has invaded the church. So the contest we have, as Bible-based, Bible-believing Christians, is on two fronts. It is against the world, but it is also against those in the church who have come to terms with the world, who have made their peace with the world, who have compromised with the world, who have given up biblical standards in order to be thought well of in the world."
He warned the congregation they would be vilified, discriminated against, and turned into second-class citizens for their beliefs. "Alas, the truth of the matter is that there are occasions in which the church is being used to persecute the church," he said.
Last year, the evangelical parties blocked the appointment as bishop of Southwark of the two liberal candidates, Jeffrey John, who is gay, and Nick Holtam, who is sympathetic to gay marriage. The compromise candidate, Christopher Chessun, has failed to promote any evangelicals in his first year in office. This month 100 of them demanded, and got, a meeting with the bishop to complain about this.
Even those among conservatives who do not support the financial boycott, and they are a majority, now feel aggrieved at the lack of promotion for evangelicals.
And among the others, the dream of financial independence from the rest of the church has been nurtured for years.
The Rev Richard Perkins, who runs a small independent but still Anglican chapel in Southwark, once blogged: "Why would you give money to a corrupt central administration that'll use it to fund ministries which we oppose? … We shouldn't fund heresy. That's disgraceful."
These tensions are mirrored in the wider Anglican communion, which the conservatives hope to control because they far outnumber the liberal churches of the Anglo-Saxon world. They believe they speak for the true CofE, never mind what the archbishop of Canterbury or the synod may decide. They have set up a body calling itself the Anglican Mission in England.
Five retired English bishops, among them Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the former bishop of Rochester who was the evangelical candidate for archbishop of Canterbury last time, have promised to act as bishops for those clergy who sign up to the pledge not to accept women bishops or tolerate gay people in the church. It is not at all clear that these arrangements are legal, since the authority of the bishops over their clergy is established by the law of England. But any legal battle would be enormously expensive and time consuming. There is no sign that the rest of the Church of England has the stomach for it.
One crisis is approaching rapidly. This summer the synod must decide whether to accept legislation allowing women to become bishops that will not make special provision for their opponents. The present draft is the product of years of wrangling. If it goes through unamended Nazir-Ali predicts that more clergy will come over to his organisation. They will attempt to leave the rest of the CofE, taking their money and their churches with them – all the while claiming, as their rhetoric already suggests, that it is the rest of the church that has left them.
But if the bishops water down the draft to avoid this open split the other side – a great majority of the church – will probably rebel. Campaigners for women bishops threaten to vote the whole measure down rather than accept amendments that would give them a permanent second-class status. The bishops meet later this month to decide and their space for compromise is vanishingly small.
EMERGING MARKETS-Latam stocks plunge on Europe worry - Reuters UK
* Euro zone officials say Greek exit contingencies needed
* Merkel dashes hopes of measures from EU summit
* Brazil Bovespa falls 3.19 pct, Mexico IPC down 1.31 pct
By Asher Levine and Danielle Assalve
SAO PAULO, May 23 (Reuters) - Latin American stocks posted their biggest one-day drop in nearly seven months o n W ednesday as investors sold off riskier assets on mounting fears over Greece's possible exit from the euro zone.
The MSCI Latin American stock index fell for a second day, sliding 3.82 percent to 3,281.98, its lowest level in nearly eight months. A technical indicator known as the relative strength index showed stocks at "oversold" levels for a 12th straight day, the longest streak in nearly 10 years.
Risk aversion mounted after Reuters reported on Wednesday that euro zone officials agreed that each country in the currency bloc will have to prepare a contingency plan for the possibility of Greece leaving the euro.
Nervous investors looked to a summit of European Union leaders scheduled later in the day for measures to resolve the crisis. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel dashed those hopes when she said no decisions were expected from the meeting, sending stocks lower still.
"The expectations created around the meeting of European leaders have been dampened, with investors believing that some kind of measure will only be taken down the road," said William Alves, an analyst with XP Investimentos in Sao Paulo.
Brazil's benchmark Bovespa stock index continued Tuesday's slide, falling 3.19 percent to 53,280.15.
State-controlled lender Banco do Brasil fell 6.12 percent, contributing most to the index's decline, while preferred shares of oil giant Petrobras dropped 3.5 percent.
Brazilian stocks have fallen nearly 14 percent in May alone as risk-averse investors concerned over the euro zone debt crisis sold off shares in favor of traditional safe-haven assets such as the U.S. dollar. Should this trend continue, the Bovespa will close May with its worst monthly loss since the depths of the global financial crisis in October 2008.
"In this scenario, the external variables are interfering much more in trading than the fundamentals of the companies themselves," said Aloisio Villeth Lemos, an analyst with Agora Corretora in Rio de Janeiro.
The Bovespa is down more than 6 percent this year after rising almost 14 percent in the first quarter on the back of abundant liquidity from foreign investors and attractive share prices following 2011's 18 percent decline.
Still, some analysts say recent losses do not necessarily signal a drastic change in the outlook for Brazilian stocks.
"It's still a bit premature to say investors have soured on Brazil," said Silvio Campos, an economist with Tendencias Consultoria in Sao Paulo.
"It's clear that investors are starting to have a less favorable outlook on Brazil, but that is nothing new," Campos said, citing mounting concerns over slowing economic growth and heavy government intervention in the economy.
Mexico's IPC index fell for the eighth session in nine, slipping 1.31 percent to 36,989.79.
America Movil, the telecommunications firm controlled by billionaire Carlos Slim, lost 1.2 percent, driving losses in the index, while cement manufacturer Cemex dropped 3.9 percent.
Chile's IPSA index notched its biggest loss since November, sliding 1.69 percent to 4,165.24 and erasing the index's gains for the year.
Retailer Falabella dropped 2.3 percent, while industrial conglomerate Copec fell 2.2 percent. (Reporting by Asher Levine; Editing by Todd Benson and Dan Grebler)
My Business: Indian youth brand Happily Unmarried - BBC News
Rahul Anand and Rajat Tuli on how they created a youth brand for India
What makes an entrepreneur? The BBC's Saima Iqbal and Tom Santorelli speak to Rahul Anand and Rajat Tuli, about turning an idea about making products tailored specifically for young, upwardly-mobile Indians into a thriving business.
Business partners Rahul Anand and Rajat Tuli first met while pursuing their Masters degrees.
In 2003 the software company they had joined together went bankrupt and they decided it was time to take the plunge and start their own enterprise.
They had the notion that there was a niche in the market for a brand which catered for India's youth - a demographic which they thought up to then was being underserved.
At the time a large number of foreign companies were setting up their outsourcing arms in India.
Rahul and Rajat realised that this would mean there would be more young employees with disposable income, but there was no brand completely dedicated to India's youth.
"The youngsters these days are independent, they have opinions and they like to make a statement with the T-shirts they are wearing or the glass they are sipping their drink from" says Rajat.
The idea for their business hit them while they were both out jogging. They were so excited by the brand name they immediately ran to a cyber cafe and registered it.
My Business
What does it take to build your own business from scratch?
How does a US expat navigate Russian bureaucracy? Or illiterate Moroccan women learn to sell their own wares? Or a Brazilian designer win over Western celebrities?
BBC World Service reporters speak to entrepreneurs around the world about their inspiration, struggles and successes.
Happily Unmarried would be a fun brand which made a vast range of products from household items to clothes and beyond which catered for young Indians. The sort of well-designed yet functional items a young single - or taken - person might like to be seen with.
Seed capital
But their former employers had not paid them for the last six months and they had no capital to get their venture off the ground.
Pawning a laptop given to them by their old company raised 25,000 rupees ($450) - which was not even enough for them to hire office space. "So we said let's give the impression that we're a really cool company! So we got nice visiting cards made, very fancy posters made and put them everywhere. And then we got a website...we were operating out of cyber cafes, out of buses, out of other peoples' offices, and that's how we managed in the first couple of years" says Rajat.
Their efforts at raising their brand awareness paid off. Starting out with a small kiosk inside a mall in Delhi, they now sell in 25 stores across 80 cities in India. "We also have stores in smaller towns in India and the sales are encouraging, it shows that Indian youth in smaller cities also like to spend and they are opening up to products that are in your face and make a statement" says Rahul.
Design ethos
The partners employ four designers to come up with new product concepts: "The basic surmise is very simple. It has to make you smile", says Rahul. Their products are colourful, funny and are often emblazoned with somewhat irreverent text which makes them a hit with the younger generation.
But their goods are also designed while keeping the utility factor in mind, says Rajat. "We have designed some innovative laundry bags, toothpick holders, key holders for walls, door-mats and tea-cups that are not just great design ideas but we need them in our lives too".
They are open to new ideas and one need not be a professional designer to design for them according to Rahul: "People from all walks of life write to us sharing their ideas and if we like the idea and decide to turn it into a product then they get royalties and credit".
E-commerce is also one of the fastest growing platforms for their products and the past year alone has seen the highest online sales of their products. "People have better access to the internet and they are opening up to the idea of shopping on the internet" says Rajat.
Youth connections
They have been able to leverage the ubiquity of social media sites to increase sales and create a sense of community in their customer base. "It just reaffirms your faith....it's a feel-good factor!" says Rajat, checking the number of friends Happily Unmarried has on Facebook - 63,00 and counting.
One of the aspects of the business the partners enjoy the most is putting on one of India's biggest independent music festivals - called Music in the Hills - in different venues each year. It helps introduce people young and old to the Happily Unmarried brand. "It's a big party for two days and two nights" says Rajat. "It works as a huge promotion for us and we love doing it".
Operating out of an office in Delhi, most of their 200 or so products are made in smaller towns closer to Delhi like Saharanpur, Roorkee, Moradabad and Panipat which are the traditional industrial hubs of northern India. "These cities have seen huge losses due to a lot of manufacturing industries going to China, but the cost of production is low and fits our needs" says Rajat.
With an annual turnover of 5 crores (roughly $900,000; £570,714; 707,247 euros) Rajat feels the industry is taking them seriously now. "We're not just designing products we are also designing restaurants, organising events and giving them our touch by making it more fun".
Stocks fall as anxiety about Europe takes hold - Post-Crescent
NEW YORK The threat of a financial crisis spreading from Europe shook markets on Wednesday. The euro dropped to a nearly two-year low against the dollar. Oil prices sank to their lowest this year, and stocks took another fall.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 180 points to 12,322 shortly after noon Eastern. The Dow has lost 6.7 percent this month, nearly wiping away all its gains for the year. Energy, banks and technology stocks fell the most.
In Brussels, leaders of the 27 countries that make up the European Union met to discuss ways to keep the debt crisis in Europe from getting worse, including proposals to promote jobs and growth.
Analysts are turning increasingly skeptical that European leaders will succeed at preventing Greece from dropping the euro or agree on ways to jump-start the region's economy. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned Tuesday that the 17 countries that use the euro risk falling into a "severe recession."
Germany's DAX and France's CAC-40 closed more than 2 percent lower. The euro continued falling against the dollar, reaching $1.25, its lowest level since July 2010. Concerns about the stability of the European currency union if Greece leaves have knocked 5 percent off the euro this month. Yields on German government bunds fell as money shifted into low-risk investments.
If Greece exits, it could spread havoc throughout the global financial system. Bond traders may turn on other struggling governments in Spain and Italy. One big fear is that people in Spain and Italy will start a bank run, pulling euros out of banks for fear that their countries will soon follow Greece's lead. European banks have close ties to U.S. banks.
In other trading, the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 19 points at 1,297. The Nasdaq composite index slumped 42 points to 2,796.
Benchmark crude lost $1.50 to $90.37 in New York. It fell as low as $90.18 earlier in the day. Prices haven't been below $90 since Nov. 1.
The dollar rose and yields on U.S. government debt fell as traders shifted money into the protection of Treasurys. The yield on the 10-year note sank to 1.71 percent, close to a record low, from 1.77 percent late Tuesday.
Editorial: Money keeps on coming - Stuff
Good lord, what a dilemma. People just keep giving you money when you have all you ever asked for.
Such is the "terrible situation" facing the organisers of the MRI appeal.
Launching the appeal with an ambitious target of $2.7 million only a year ago, the cause hit such a chord with the community that by April the target was revised upwards to $2.8 million, the extra $100,000 tagged for anaesthetic equipment.
But even as it was emphasising a final push and not wanting to count chickens, there must have been some thought within the fundraising committee about when to call enough.
"Do we say we've reached the target before we actually have?"
"Do we simply stop accepting money after the target has been reached?"
That sort of thing.
But whatever the discussions might have been, by the time the announcement came that the $2.8m had been reached, there was actually $3m pledged. And it's still coming.
This is not to be critical of the appeal committee. Most often when you run a telethon-type pledging campaign you'd budget on a certain number of donors not honouring their pledges. Who would have thought that donors instead would actually pay more than they pledged.
What are you going to do? Insist on the lower amount?
Likewise when cheques keep walking in the door after you've tried to shut it. And some have proved pretty determined to slide their cheques through the crack, despite being told the pot's full. And you wouldn't want to appear ungrateful.
All of which leaves the MRI committee in a slightly awkward position. Awkward because it knows it is but one project in need and it has attracted a large slice of the community's goodwill, and awkward because it can't give the money back and neither can it spend it. At least not yet.
So it's probably doing the only thing it can ... retaining a healthy bank balance to cover maintenance of the scanner, and perhaps even having a nest egg to put towards a new scanner in 10 years.
A possible alternative might have been the Aoraki Foundation, launched last August to build a capital fund with the interest being used on worthy local causes, including perhaps a new MRI scanner in 10 years.
But that doesn't get around the problem of people donating specifically to this MRI cause.
So, a bit awkward, but few options. If someone could just keep a close eye on the $300,000 though, in case someone from Wellington starts poking around.
Pop it under a pillow perhaps.
- © Fairfax NZ News
Vince Cable: I am not holding back business - Daily Telegraph
Mr Cable hit back saying: "I'm getting on with my job, supporting business and getting growth growing in Britain. We not holding anybody back, I'm back growth, supporting British business, working with government, working with the labour-force in a partnership. That's the way it's got to happen.
Business News: Denys Shortt leaves strong legacy at Coventry and Warwickshire LEP - Coventry Telegraph.net
London stocks slide on Greece exit warning - YAHOO!
London stocks plunged lower on Wednesday ahead of an informal EU summit and after the former Greek prime minister warned that Greece might leave the eurozone.
The benchmark FTSE 100 index fell 2.53 percent to close art 5,566.41 points.
Sentiment was also tense after Germany reasserted its stance against eurobonds -- whereby strong and weak eurozone countries would pool their ability to borrow -- despite calls from other members and the IMF to consider this option.
"Today we have seen another leg of the downward trend as investors become anxious that the EU summit will not yield a solution to tackle the latest threats of the debt debacle," said Matthew Nelson, a sales trader with British-based spread-betting firm Spreadex.
"Even if a credible strategy does emerge from today?s meeting it is likely the markets will be nervy until the re-elections in Greece on the 17th June, offering short-term traders, such as spread bettors, an opportunity to trade the volatility."
Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) was the most traded stock, with 152 million shares changing hands, followed by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) with 103 million.
The day's biggest riser was medical devices company Smith and Nephew, which rose 0.42 percent -- or 2.5 pence -- to close at 594.5, followed by satellite broadcaster BSkyB, which added 0.36 percent -- or 2.5 pence -- to 693.
The biggest faller was Vedanta Resources, which dropped 9.12 percent -- or 95.9 pence -- to end at 951.5, followed by fellow mining giant Kazakhmys, which fell 7.86 percent -- or 58 pence -- to 679.5.
On the currency markets, the pound was trading at $1.5686 at 17:10 BST, down from $1.5763 at the same time on Tuesday, while it reached 1.2486 euros, up from 1.2387 over the same period.
horrible tragedy and my heart goes out to his family. unfortunately it's fairly common for people to fall in the water down there, and you really can't put railings along a working wharf.. hmmm dunno where the dm got that pic of ri-ra, but that isn't the one in portland.
- liz, portland, me, 23/5/2012 18:00
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