Welsh capital is buzzing with business confidence
DURING the past few months we have seen some significant developments for the further growth of the capital city of Wales.
First of all, we had the announcement that a £180m Metro Central transport hub around Cardiff Central rail station would be built. This would not only include a revamping of the existing facilities but also new stations for coach services and the longawaited South Wales Metro, as well as a cycle hub with room for 1,000 bikes.
This was quickly followed by the release by Cardiff council of ambitious plans for a new 15,000-seater indoor arena, which would be sited on the area that covers the current County Hall and the nearby Red Dragon Centre in Cardiff Bay.
This £100m project would bring hundreds of thousands of new highspending visitors into the city and region every year and boost the tourism industry substantially.
And only this week, plans were released for 2.5 million sq ft of development on the current site of Brains brewery, which would include office space, new bars, restaurants and apartments and would create and support thousands of jobs.
While most of the development would be new, the historic Brainsbranded chimney is to remain as a key feature, while the original 19thcentury brewhouse will form a backdrop to the riverside plaza.
For the burgeoning technology sector, there was great news when Barclays Bank teamed up with Legal & General to open a new 6,500 sq ft start-up incubator in January.
The Eagle Lab has space for 120 individuals and access to maker space facilities to support rapid prototyping and product development. It will complement existing incubator space in the city, including Tramshed and Entrepreneurial Spark, with well-advanced plans for other similar spaces.
Deloitte has also announced plans to create 600 new jobs in the city, building on their significant investment to date, and Cardiff Airport will be opening up the city and the wider region to the Middle East, Australasia and the Far East with the new daily flight to Doha with Qatar Airlines.
Such developments, in addition to those capital projects already under way in Central Square and the Capital Quarter, illustrate the enormous confidence of the business community in Cardiff.
That is why businesses – both large and small – should look to apply for the fourth Cardiff Business Awards. Since they were launched in 2015, the awards have showcased the best businesses in the city. Previous winners have included IQE, Eversheds and fast-growing technology firm Sure Chill.
Sponsored by NatWest, the awards are open to organisations that can demonstrate strong financial performance, innovation and exceptional customer experiences on a consistent basis.
As chairman of the judging panel for the awards for the past three years, I have witnessed at first hand the growing appetite among businesses in the capital to showcase their accomplishments to their community.
Each year the bar is raised even higher, and these awards celebrate and recognise the best businesses in the city and the people who make them what they are.
Indeed, with Cardiff greatly benefiting from levels of investment not seen since it was the biggest coalexporting port in the world, this truly is an exciting time to be a business in the capital. The levels of success, ambition and achievement being shown by so many businesses in Cardiff continue to astound and cement the city’s place as a leading commercial centre for the UK.
Cardiff plays a unique role within both the Welsh and wider UK economy, and these awards – the biggest of their kind in Wales – offer the unique opportunity to not only raise the profile of the city as a dynamic and fast-growing destination of choice for an increasing number of businesses, but to shout about this as being a great city in which to start, run and grow a successful company.
Therefore, Cardiff is undergoing a significant and equally exciting period right now, with some great commercial stories coming out of the city.
Given this, I would urge entrepreneurs and businesses to enter the 2018 Cardiff Business Awards, not only to boost their own profile but to enhance the reputation of the capital city’s business community and to act as a great advertisement to others as to what can – and is – being achieved in Cardiff.