Record month for chamber as Greater Birmingham economy strengthens

GREATER Birmingham’s strong economy has been cited as the main reason for a record membership drive by the area’s chamber of commerce.

Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce (GBCC), which covers Birmingham, Solihull, Burton, Lichfield, Tamworth, Chase and Sutton Coldfield, attracted more than 80 new members last month.
 
Paul Kehoe, the chamber’s president and chief executive at Birmingham Airport, said: “This is the best performance since records began and the efforts of our membership team in achieving this reflect the renaissance the region is undergoing in terms of new business at home and abroad.
 
“We believe it is important the chamber is a centre for all businesses in Greater Birmingham to work together to bring prosperity to the region and this is certainly working.”
 
He said the chamber had successfully embraced the challenge set out by Prime Minister Theresa May to create a Global Britain post Brexit and it would now push on to market Greater Birmingham business to the rest of the country and the world.
 
Paul Faulkner, chief executive of the GBCC, said: “Our record month is a great achievement for the whole chamber but the front-line of our efforts is the membership team, who have achieved remarkable figures in a notoriously difficult field.
 
“We will celebrate this success but not relax our efforts. We talk to hundreds of business every month and it is obviously from what they tell us that working together with the chamber is the best way to business success.”
 
He said there was further cause for optimism as early indications from the chamber’s final Quarterly Business Report (QBR) suggested a steady turnaround for sales both at home and abroad.

The Q4 report will be published at the end of December.