LAUNCHPAD Welcome to the first edition of The Business Magazine South West, West Midlands and Oxfordshire

It might look rather like Business & Innovation Magazine, and that’s because it is – in all but name.

Our last issue in March was the final one to carry the title Business & Innovation Magazine, which we first launched in May 2017. After being acquired by Black Ox Ltd last year, we are now proud to adopt their magazine title as a regional publishing company which supports and reports on regional business.

Black Ox’s flagship title, The Business Magazine South East, covers business news from the Thames Valley, Surrey, Kent, Sussex, the Solent and the South Coast and has been published for more than 20 years. This issue covers the South West, West Midlands and Oxfordshire.

And the magazine is, as usual, packed with news, interviews and features.

In this issue, we pay tribute to King Charles III on his coronation. Our new king was, as Prince Charles, forthright in his views on many topics, not least of which was giving disadvantaged young people a helping hand. In 1976, after leaving the Royal Navy, he launched The Princes Trust. In 1983, the Trust set up its enterprise programme which has since helped more than 90,000 young people between 18-30 to start their own business.

In total, The Trust has helped more than a million young people to date and helps tens of thousands more across the UK each year. This is an amazing and ongoing initiative and you can read more about it in our Skills pages.

Our headline feature is Keep the Money Flowing. Where do start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs go to find growth funding?

We’ve interviewed some of the region’s most knowledgeable investors and explain the range of funding options available to ambitious companies.

Our ambitious leaders in this issue are truly inspiring. We meet Fiona Shiner who, in just a few years, has established a hugely successful vineyard which is already winning international acclaim for its wines, and talk to Ross Morgan at Tokamak Energy, the company grappling with one of the world’s toughest physical challenges – achieving nuclear fusion which could provide the world with limitless energy.

Elsewhere in the magazine we put research and development under the microscope, attempt to explain quantum computing and reveal 10 of the region’s coolest technology innovations, from sustainable jet engines to a new electric car engine capable of going from 0-60mph in less than 1.5 seconds.

What all the innovators behind these new technologies did was never give up. We didn’t know until we started researching the topic that Sir James Dyson created more than 5,000 prototypes before he succeeded in building his DC01 bagless vacuum cleaner.

As Thomas Edison, the 19th century inventor of the light bulb, was reputed to have said: “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Mr Edison also contributed to the invention of the phonograph and the motion picture camera. It’s not too grandiose a statement to say that this man changed the world. But little could he have known the global impact his innovations would go on to have.

This magazine is packed full of innovation, including a company making fuel out of chip fat to another developing sustainable construction materials and many more.

Their names may not be Dyson or Edison, but it’s likely some of their ideas and innovations will go on to have just as much an impact on society.

We hope you enjoy the read.

Kirsty Muir Head of Print and Advertising