BIRMINGHAM: Bosses at Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce claim it is in its strongest shape for years after revealing income grew to £6.8 million last year.
Financial director Mike Hibbert said that, after years of cost reduction and contraction, GBCC was now able to move forward after a boost in public funding.
He will tell the chamber’s annual meeting at Birmingham Hippodrome today that the group is in a good shape to increase membership through better value services after a four per cent rise in income.
That was mainly due to a six per cent increase in public funding for business support activities and a nine per cent increase in commercial activities.
This increase in income helped the chamber’s operating surplus to increase from £166,000 in the previous year to £236,000 in 2014/15.
Meanwhile, Greg Lowson, partner and head of office at law firm Pinsent Masons in Birmingham, starts his second year as the chamber president today.
Chief executive of GBCC Paul Faulkner said: “We have broken from the tradition of changing president every year in order to ensure continuity following the retirement of Jerry Blackett.
“These are exciting times in the progress of the group and we are working hard to develop the advantages of chamber membership for the whole business community.
“Our work in this direction has been one of the main focuses since I joined the chamber in July and we look forward to announcing significant changes in the near future.
“We are greatly honoured that Greg has agreed to serve a second year as president and this will ensure continuity in these and other developments.”
Paul Kehoe, chief executive at Birmingham Airport, is vice-president of the chamber and new members due to be appointed to the chamber’s council are: John Tyerman, partner at Pinsent Masons; Jim Oldham, account director at Amey; Diane Rance, owner of Creating Value with People; Lorraine Francis, owner of Weave Marketing; Rajiv Ranjan, director of Technowave Consultants and Stephen Robinson, principal at Abbey College.
