Chamber of Commerce seeing strong growth

Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce has seen a rapid growth in membership in the past year.

The number of members of the business group has increased from 440 to 570 since the appointment of two people to the membership team last summer.

Chief executive Alison Henderson said the chamber has focused on retaining and recruiting members.

She said: “We wanted to grow to be more representative of the business community.

“It’s important that we have growth in numbers but also that we retain the members we have as much as we can.

“The focus was to bring in two people who would look at recruitment but also retention and engagement.

“We’ve seen the retention of our existing members climb to 93%, which is very strong compared to similar organisations.

“Membership is very strong at the moment.

“We are very deliberate in supporting businesses from lots of different sectors and also making sure that we are talking to Angus businesses as well as those based in Dundee.”

Ms Henderson, who has held the CEO position at the Chamber of Commerce for the past three years, said businesses were attracted by the chamber’s events programme, which numbers around 70 a year, as well as other member benefits.

“We have focused on building and maintaining a quality events programme,” she said.

“Our events attract about 2,000 attendees throughout the year. That attracts people to us but in the past we haven’t been so focused on going out and talking to new businesses before.

“We are now getting out and having more conversations with businesses and letting people know of the value for their membership.”

Alison Henderson of Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce.