Welcome from Cllr Izzi Seccombe

Welcome to the May edition of Warwickshire Means Business, our bi-monthly update of news, features and information for the business community.

There are many reasons why we are lucky to live in Warwickshire and why so many people want to visit our beautiful county. Every day of every year our tourist and service industries offer a warm welcome but just at the moment one special event is following another to attract visitors - with sports and the arts to the fore.

Last autumn the town of Rugby rolled out the red carpet for visitors to the UK for the Rugby World Cup. Then Stratford-upon-Avon took centre stage for commemorations of the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. Now the county is gearing up for crowds which will gather on Thursday 16 June when the world's top women cyclists arrive for Stage Two of the Aviva Women's Tour.

Warwickshire County Council is proud to be hosting the event in partnership with the University of Warwick and I am delighted that the main sponsor in Warwickshire is supermarket chain Aldi. The company is one of our major employers with over 500 staff in their head office in Atherstone so, given their strong links with Warwickshire, they are perfect partners.

The Tour will bring a significant economic boost to the county and we at Warwickshire County Council, with the support of North Warwickshire Borough and Warwick and Stratford-on-Avon District councils, are working hard with the region’s businesses to maximise the economic opportunities it will bring.

On a broader theme it is encouraging to hear that, amid signs of a slowing economy nationally, in Warwickshire we are bucking the trend.

As Dave Ayton-Hill reports in The Warwickshire Outlook elsewhere in this edition of Warwickshire Means Business, a Chamber of Commerce survey found that, in the last quarter of last year, business confidence in Coventry and Warwickshire was at its highest for a decade. Many businesses are optimistic about the future and have strong order books.

There is no room for complacency, as the national situation shows, but it is testament to the skills, enterprise, innovation and work ethic of our business community that Warwickshire is performing above the national average.

All those attributes are illustrated by stories in this edition of Warwickshire Means Business.  Our small businesses are blossoming in all sectors from counter-terrorism to confectionery and canal-boats to canine supplies.

Here at Warwickshire County Council we are fully committed to helping business large and small, rural and town-based and in all sectors to start-up, settle, expand and prosper.

From sole traders to giants like Jaguar Land Rover, whose continuing expansion is testament to what the county offers as a base, Warwickshire is clearly a place where business works.