Gloucestershire's rural businesses get innovative with GFirst LEP

Local rural business owners who are keen to grow and diversify, joined the GFirst LEP Land Based Business Group for a morning of business focused advice and inspiration.

Hearing from inspiring local businesses, Godsell’s Cheese and Green Gourmet, rural business leaders took tips on how they could strengthen and grow their own businesses, whilst engaging with their Local Enterprise Partnership.

The event featured motivating business stories, including local business owner Liz McNab-Jones of Godsell’s Cheese, taking delegates through the journey of her cheese enterprise, and all the challenges along the way. GFirst LEP Board member Adam Starkey, and owner of local food company Green Gourmet, described the ways his business has developed within the food industry, and the GFirst LEP Land Based Business Group discussed the needs of rural businesses.

Chris Gaskell, Chair of GFirst LEP’s Land Based Business Group and former Vice Chancellor of the Royal Agricultural University said: “The Innovation in Gloucestershire’s Rural Businesses event was a great opportunity for our Business Group to have real life input from rural business leaders about their growth needs, which will now help us form future projects and services. The event also gave us the opportunity to explain the ways in which the LEP and Growth Hub can help develop the growth aspirations of rural businesses within our county.”

The Innovation in Rural Businesses event followed on from GFirst LEP’s Annual Review, which reported on the successes, and looked to the future, of the projects that are benefiting from Gloucestershire’s Growth Deal funding. With over 300 businesses in attendance, Chair, Diane Savory OBE, and Chief Executive, David Owen, kicked off the Annual Review with a summary of how £77.5 million has started to be spent in the county over the past 12 months. Reporting on the end of year one delivery of Growth Deal funding, an impressive array of projects were discussed; from a new bus station in Gloucester, to helping retailers engage with digital technologies.

If you are a rural business within Gloucestershire and want to engage with the GFirst LEP Land Based Business Group, contact us on info@gfirstlep.com.