Welcome from Monica Fogarty, joint managing director, Warwickshire County Council

Hello all and welcome to the July edition of Warwickshire Means Business.

In this edition we feature three businesses that are growing with the support of small capital grants from Warwickshire County Council.

We feature a campsite, a company at the cutting edge of technology and a Proptech business, all of which are about as diverse as businesses can get - and this is a great illustration of both the diversity of the Warwickshire economy and the support that the county council provides through the small capital grants scheme.

Up to March this year, we had awarded capital grants amounting to £1.3million, unlocking a further £2.5million of private sector investment. The grants have so far supported 58 small businesses, creating more than 80 jobs with up to 235 set to be created by 2020.

Small business are the lifeblood of the economy and Warwickshire County Council is committed to offering a broad range of support to them throughout the county. We do this through our Economy & Skills team, working in collaboration with you, our partner organisations, and it was great to see our team's work recognised again last week when they collected the 'Best All-round Small Business Friendliness' award at the FSB's Local Authority Awards.

It is the third successive year, and sixth time in seven years, that Warwickshire County Council has won this award, which is true testament to the sustained hard work and dedication of our team to help our business community. 

For full details on how we might be able to help you, please visit https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/business.

All businesses await the impact of Brexit. And while the high-level negotiations go on, we are doing all we can to ensure that Warwickshire's business community remains well-equipped to face the future - whatever it brings.

Steph Williams, our Inward Investment Officer, was recently part of a delegation to Lille to make connections and gather information about the automotive sector in France. It proved a very worthwhile trip, helping the delegation from our region to establish new contacts and strengthen existing ones.

We are fortunate that the Coventry & Warwickshire region already has an excellent reputation, nationally and internationally, across numerous sectors. This makes Warwickshire a very attractive location to base a business. At the county council, as you would expect, we are constantly pushing that message out to potential investors across the UK and beyond.

Warwickshire's economy is strong and has been further boosted, in recent weeks, by the wonderful efforts of England's football team. Our head of economy & skills David Ayton-Hill observed in the last edition of 'Warwickshire Means Business' that, since 1990, countries that reached the World Cup semi-finals reported an average 4.5% growth in consumer spending in the year following the tournament, compared to an average of 3.3% the year before. Warwickshire's economy is set to keep going from strength to strength - just like Gareth Southgate's team!

I hope you all have a lovely summer.