Business Cornwall

Kelsall Steele, the Camborne and Truro-based firm of chartered accountants and Independent Financial Advisers (IFAs), has won ‘Firm of The Year’ at an awards ceremony held in London.

Restaurants across the Duchy are being invited to join a national fundraising campaign to benefit local homeless charities - St Petroc’s Society and the Cornwall Women’s Refuge Trust.

Business failures in the south west are down according to the Q3 Equifax Business Failures Report, but not to the same degree as the rest of the country.

Homeowners in Cornwall could cut the county’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by more than 28,000 tonnes per year by installing solar on their homes, according to a leading solar company.

Regional law firm Stephens Scown has been shortlisted in the national legal industry awards.

Work has begun on a scheme worth almost £13.5 million to build offices and industrial units in Redruth and create more than 170 jobs.

Cornwall Council chief executive Kevin Lavery has been putting Cornwall’s case forward to MPs for the Duchy to lead its own Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

Thirty new jobs are in line for Portreath with a £10 million, two-year development programme that will hopefully start before the end of the year.

A major international conference aimed at boosting innovation in the marine sector has been taking place at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth this week. Kernowpods.com’s Matthew Clarke was there for Business Cornwall.

A presentation outlining phase two of ESF (European Social Fund) Convergence investment has taken place at the Headland Hotel.

While findings from the British Chambers of Commerce’s (BCC) latest Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) suggest the recovery is slowing, Cornwall figures claim many local businesses remain more confident than elsewhere in the UK.

More than 400 Falmouth businesses now have the opportunity to benefit from a new interactive ‘window on their world’ with the launch of a comprehensive destination website, funded by the Falmouth Business Improvement District (BID).

Having successfully overseen the £580k improvement scheme at Cornwall’s first charitable run leisure centre, Carn Brea’s centre manager, Alex Clifton is taking up a new role as strategic development manager within the Trust.

National car hire firm Avis UK has opened a branch at Newquay Airport.

Work is well underway on Cornish Cottages’ new office building on the Mullion Meadows Craft Centre.

Very sad to hear this week about the demise of Hayle-based foreign exchange trader Crown Currency Exchange. Not so sad for the directors, but more so for the 13,000 customers across the country that have been left out of pocket to a collective tune of something like £20 million. Questions are now being asked how Crown was allowed to rack up such an outstanding balance, when only about £3 million has been discovered in its own accounts by the administrators MCR.

Roundhouse Barn Holidays has been crowned Cornwall’s Tourism Business of the Year, after winning the coveted overall ‘Winner of Winners’ trophy at last night’s Cornwall Tourism Awards at St Mellion International Resort.

Applications have opened for the annual Excellence in Business Training Awards.

The Mid Cornwall Business Group is looking for new members and by way of incentive is offering a £1k and a year’s free membership to the best small business that applies.

South west businesses’ efforts to improve their green credentials are at risk of faltering because of a recession-borne focus on cost savings, according to a new study from Lloyds TSB Commercial.