Welcome from Portfolio Holder for Economy, Councillor Martin Watson

Hello and welcome to a special festive edition of Warwickshire Means Business. 

Once again, we are supporting small businesses in the county around Christmas with another campaign to encourage our residents to think local this Christmas. 

Whether it be for buying presents, food and drink or supporting local hospitality venues on meals and nights out, the #WarwickshireChristmas campaign will be doing all it can to support the lifebloods of our town centres. 

In October’s issue, we launched the Green Recovery Grants which help businesses with funding to make themselves more energy efficient.  In this issue businesses, as well as information on green business grants, you can find the link to two webinars which gave terrific practical advice on reducing their energy bills. 

You can also read about Purple Packaging who received invaluable support in setting up their biodegradable packaging. 

Christmas is about giving and, sometimes, support and advice can be the best gifts. The inspiring story of Above and Beyond shows how the support of a business coach has helped a new business to thrive while JustinTime Coffee tells the story of how the support from the Council’s start-up service helped get a coffee business off the ground. 

There’s loads more to see and this is not the time of year to give away any surprises. We know that it’s been a challenging year for businesses with the huge increase in costs having its toll not only on their overheads but also incomes as consumers tighten their belts.

Help is available and will be throughout the new year so please join us in 2023 for more information and inspiring stories from Warwickshire’s business community.