Bury businesses get resilient

Whether it’s extreme weather changes, cyber-crime or another unexpected event, business resilience is critical to ensure smooth running and swift recovery. In agreement were local business owners who turned out in force last week to attend a Business Resilience breakfast event at the Fusilier Museum in Bury.

Led by Barclays’ Building Thriving Local Economies initiative and in partnership with Bury Council, over 50 businesses heard from experts on the theme of resilience; from considerations when trading abroad to the importance of protecting against fraud and ensuring businesses stay vigilant in light of the growing sophistication of cyber threats and malware. This event was the second in Barclays’ series to help local businesses.

The morning was co-chaired by Andy Horner, Head of SME North West at Barclays and David Fowler, Assistant Director at Bury Council. A range of local businesses representing different industries came to the breakfast from finance consultancies and transport companies, to patisseries and data specialists. Investment experts Will Hobbs and Toby Cross from Barclays also joined to help businesses think about planning for resilience against market events and the economy.

Will Hobbs, Chief Investment Officer for Barclays, commented: “A fundamental aspect of ensuring more businesses are resilient, is by spreading and learning from industry best-practice. For example, if one business is doing something well, other relevant businesses might want to adopt similar principles to their own contingency plans. Personalisation is also key to remaining resilient. Take external events, political affairs and economic fluctuations and consider the impact they will have on your own business supply chain and growth needs.”

Barclays’ Building Thriving Local Economies initiative launched in September 2018, with Bury announced as the bank’s first pilot region. The aim to help ensure that every part of the country can fulfil its potential and inform what companies like Barclays can do to help economies to thrive.

David Fowler, Assistant Director of Localities from Bury Council added: “In working so closely with Barclays and its Building Thriving Local Economies initiative, the importance of understanding local businesses, entrepreneurs and innovators, and the way they will make a change to make Bury brighter, is key."

Will Hobbs, Barclays continued: “The UK is often wrongly characterised as having London at the helm, but things are changing. We don’t have to punish cities to make other areas thrive, we have to think about how we redistribute and help other regions to grow. One of the main drivers of city growth is creating an ecosystem for businesses and employees, such as establishing associated services in the area, incubating start-ups, and promoting local talent.”