MORGAN MOTOR COMPANY UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP AFTER CELEBRATING 100 YEARS IN BUSINESS

Malvern Festival of Innovation set for another bumper year

The Malvern Festival of Innovation, which takes place from October 7-12, has a major new event sponsor. London and Singapore-based Business Mix, a collaboration network and consultancy, is bringing its international network of clients, partners and associates to the festival to share ideas on innovation and sustainability.

Business Mix also works with partners and clients in Israel, India and Cameroon. Founder, David Page, said: “The Malvern Festival of Innovation shares the same ethos around innovation and collaboration that our company stands for. Thanks to our network of talented individuals and companies, we’re able to bring a flavour of what’s going on globally in innovation, sustainability and the cyber world for this week-long event.”

Festival founder and organiser, Dr Adrian Burden, added: “Business Mix will bring a wealth of expertise to this year’s festival.”

Earlier this year one of Britain’s most iconic sports car brands came under new ownership. Investindustrial, which also has a stake in Aston Martin in Warwickshire, acquired a majority stake in the iconic, 110-year old British sports cars manufacturer.

The Morgan family retains a minority shareholding. Meanwhile, for the first time in its history, the management team and all employees will have a share of the business.

Founded in 1909, Morgan hand-builds premium sports cars with a classic design in its historic Malvern factory, which is visited by more than 30,000 enthusiasts each year. With revenues of £33.8 million and net profit of £3.2 million in 2018, the company sells around 700 cars per year including a portfolio of iconic car designs and a unique three-wheeler manufactured using three core elements: ash, aluminium and leather.

Investindustrial says it wants to accelerate new product development at Morgan, increase global distribution and broaden customers’ experience with unique events.

And if you can’t afford the real thing…

How about a unique bronze sculpture of another iconic sports car? These beautiful pieces are designed and cast in foundry bronze by Malvern-based Chris Davis.

It can take from three months to a year to design and produce one of his sculptures.

A beautiful co-working space and business incubator for individuals, start-ups and scale-ups which opened last September has created a strong business community, and this is just the beginning, according to founder Jack Wratten.

Based at The Grange, on Grange Road in Malvern, a unique benefit of BLOOM.SPACE is its sister co-working space on Gower Street in London, which members can also use.

Jack said: “The BLOOM.SPACE community in Malvern comprises several components, much as in our London office. We have consultants running their own small businesses and people working with larger organisations (like the BBC and Xerox) who could work from home but want to be in a co-working space with other people.

We also have non-profits, and growing start-ups which are creating new businesses and new jobs in Malvern.

“Our business incubator services, like mentoring and support to get investment-ready with introductions to investors, are really driving the growth of our start-ups.”

Coworking space is blooming after first year success College opens Cyber and Digital Centre at Malvern Hills Science Park

Malvern Hills Science Park will soon be a hub of IT training when Warwickshire College Group opens its Malvern Hills Centre for Digital and Cyber Technologies.

Starting with full-time courses for school-leavers this month, the centre aims to develop more full and parttime courses for young people and adults, working with employers in the Science Park to deliver the technical skills training needed to support these expanding businesses.