Archive of South West Business Insider
Issue - February 2012
In the new edition of South West Business Insider, we take a look at apprenticeships and ask ‘can they make the difference for South West business?’. We also take a look at the economy of Somerset and see how advanced manufacturing and nucle3ar power could become more relevant than cider and dairy; and speak to Christian Jones, the man at the helm of Devon-based child-size sleeping bag maker Gro Company.
By the time this magazine reaches you, the fifth National Apprenticeship Week will be just around the corner. We haven’t put apprenticeships on this month’s cover just because we enjoy chortling at Lord Sugar being cartoonishly cantankerous with gel-topped young thrusters on the BBC (although who doesn’t enjoy that?), but because this is something that can make a genuine difference in the South West.
Question for readers with young children: do you still have an airing cupboard full of blankets, or do you have sleeping bags for your kids?
Cider. Cheese. Farming. Basket weaving. The popular view of Somerset easily succumbs to lazy clichés, despite the fact that agriculture and food and drink production make up less than one tenth of its total economic output.