NRL’s recruitment business is celebrating after being recognised as one of the UK’s top providers for another year. The Largest Staffing Firms in the UK report is prepared following extensive research by specialists at Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) to rank the top 50 performing recruitment businesses in the UK each year by stringently evaluating each organisations’ financial performance ...

Grants up to £2,500 are now available for smaller charities and grassroots groups based in Somerset. Somerset Community Foundation (SCF) manages The Somerset Fund and is encouraging smaller charities and community groups that run on less than £100,000 per year to apply now for funding. The grants are ‘unrestricted’, which means they can be used to pay for ongoing running costs, also known a...

Bridgwater & Taunton College (BTC) has been selected as one of the finalists for the City & Guilds Award for Colleges Engagement with Employers at the Association of Colleges (AOC) Beacon Awards 2020/21. The national awards celebrate and recognise the best and most innovative practice among UK further education (FE) colleges and the City & Guilds Award for Colleges Engagement with Emp...

Somerset Chamber members SASP (Somerset Activity and Sports Partnership) and Spark Somerset have joined forces to encourage people to become COVID Community Champions. The Covid Community Champions Network gives local people a role in helping their community to get up-to-date information and make choices to stay healthy. After attending a short online training course, COVID Community Champions w...

The former bosses of a leading grocery benchmarking programme in the UK and Ireland have announced the expansion of their own research group based in Somerset, creating several new jobs. Julia Pascu and Andy Kemp-King had been running the Advantage Report in the UK and Ireland for nearly 20 years under a franchise agreement with Advantage Group International (AGI), based in Canada. That agreeme...

Somerset-based small business Reflex Medical Limited has started 2021 with expansion! While the business landscape is so uncertain, Reflex Medical have gone from strength to strength despite the additional challenges imposed by COVID-19. Moving from a small storage space and office in Bruton, Reflex Medical has secured new premises near Cannards Grave in Shepton Mallet. This new location offers a...

Leading South West law firm Battens Solicitors has today announced the appointment of Patrick Mears as Head of Commercial Property, Bath. Renowned for his considerable expertise in commercial law, servicing the Bath market for many years, Patrick will help focus and build the firm’s commercial offering in Bath. Building on Battens’ reputation for excellence in commercial law, from its Yeovil ...

Otterhead Forest School leader Peter Holmes has raised £2,200 to support a forest school project with Reminiscence Learning. He had originally set out to raise £600 by camping out in all winds and weathers for one week as his old-fashioned alter ego ‘Tarquin Montgomery’. Tarquin’s Big Camp Out saw Peter and friend Harvey cooking on a campfire, sleeping in hammocks and tackling the worst ...

Aspen Waite Director, David Scheeres, has designed, developed and implemented a pioneering process which has received national recognition and praise for turning the huge amount of waste caused by the use of disposable surgical face masks into a useful product. Sterimelt technology, developed by David and colleagues, melts single-use polypropylene plastics with blocks later converted into new pro...

Like many other businesses in the UK which were unable to hold their Christmas parties, Blueloop decided to donate to the local community and help others who needed shelter and food during these difficult times and cold winter. Blueloop knew of the great work that the team provided at the Open Door and donated £150 to help provide food and shelter for the homeless. Open Door exists to support ro...

The Sangha House has this week secured a major piece of international business. The wellbeing centre, based in Taunton, very quickly introduced a completely new arm to the business with the first lockdown of 2020 and now offers a complete programme of yoga, Pilates, exercise and meditation classes via Zoom.  Directors Andy and Denise Spragg saw the benefit to corporate clients to assist with the...

Regional law firm, Porter Dodson, would normally host Christmas drinks for all their offices in December, but like many others, were unable to celebrate Christmas in their usual way so instead decided to donate £6,000 to local charities. Porter Dodson has chosen charities which have been hard hit this year, with their fundraising events being cancelled and for many, their services being needed m...

After being shortlisted for ‘Customer Service Excellence' and ‘Small Business of the Year’, The Design Hive won both categories in this year's Sedgemoor Business Excellence Awards. The black-tie awards evening was held live on YouTube due to the Coronavirus pandemic. All shortlisted businesses joined via Zoom and partied behind the scenes. Business owner Mel Downing said: "After 11 years ...

Taunton School is synonymous with its neo-gothic main building and iconic clock tower and 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of this flagship building in the county town. The current site on Staplegrove Road wasn’t always the home of Taunton School. Before 1870, the school occupied a site at the end of Wellington Road, close to where the Tesco store now is. It was decided that a new more spaciou...

PKF Francis Clark has strengthened its Taunton office with the arrival of partner Andy Squires and four new appointments. Chartered tax advisor Andy returns to Taunton after six years at the firm’s Torquay office to lead the private client, capital gains and land taxes team in Somerset. The office has also been bolstered by the arrival of Courtney Bellringer and Fiona Lockyer, both senior acco...