Weston-super-Mare and District Chamber of Trade

and Commerce would like to welcome you to our

Member and Public benefit centric website.

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IN MEMORIUM

It is with great sadness that Weston-super-Mare and District Chamber of Trade and Commerce must announce that one of its most esteemed former Chamber Presidents, Mrs. Vickie Bret (Nee Wheeler) has passed away.  It is with great sadness that we must inform our Members and the general Community at large, that our former President, valued Ambassador and Executive Team Member, Vickie passed away on the morning of 8th July 2010 after a long illness. The funeral will be held on Wednesday 21st July at Weston Crematorium.

Vickie was a successful and respected Business woman in her own right and a much loved, highly respected and very loyal supporter of Weston Chamber and in Chamber's role in the wider community. Vickie was very influential in making Weston Chamber the notable success it is today.

Vickie was a wonderful Lady and will be much missed by her many friends and colleagues at Weston Chamber, in the wider business community and in the County by all who had the honour of knowing her.

Our thoughts are with her family, close friends and loved ones on this very sad occasion. 

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Welcome to the official Website of Weston-super-Mare and District Chamber of Trade and Commerce. Weston Chamber is a collective force of leading businesses of all sizes (not just big companies) based in the North Somerset (ex-Avon) and Woodspring (Parlimentary Constituancy) area of the West of England, in the South West Region of the UK. Chris Knight, Chamber President.

The thriving Victorian seaside County Town of Weston-super-Mare, enjoys a healthy and dynamic business community with over 2,600 businesses in the Town, ranging from the traditional trades through to high tech industries.

Weston-In-Bloom

Weston's Sea Front again hosted the Weston-in-Bloom, Weston-super-Mare's Community Show and the famous Televised Channel 4 T4 Rock Festival T4 On The Beach, which thanks to glorious sunshine attracted a substantial attendance gathering growing from last year's success and with many accompanying trade benefits for the traders of Weston-super-Mare, reaffirming's Weston's place in the National music calendar map, not just as a legendary Victorian Seaside Tourist Holiday destination, but also as a prominent Music Festival host for burgeoning talent.

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Weston Chamber needs YOU to represent YOUR Industry!

Weston-super-Mare and District Chamber of Trade and Commerce Weston Chamber is a consultative member of the North Somerset Initiative and actively empowers local businesses with a collective voice for when commercial, economic or environmental matters need to be addressed and a positive strength in numbers is required for action on that issue. If you have a business in the Weston-super-Mare area and want to be heard on issues that matter to and effect you, you need to be a Member of our influential Chamber. In these difficult times, it has never been more important to be a lean and fit enterprise, if your business is to survive the recession and prosper.

With Membership fees for Weston Chamber currently subsidised to start at only £20 per annum, through to a maximum of £75, there is a very compelling argument to join and be heard. Indeed, the more business people that join, the more issues can be raised for addressing and the particular interests of various types of commercial activity can be more accurately and effectively represented.  Weston Chamber actively encourage and welcome Membership of multiple Chambers, regardless of geographical location or regaional factors.

Weston Chamber has a highly successful web presence and will be further developing the Chamber web sites to encompass profile raising online representation for our Members. Can you afford not to be a Member? 

Click here to e-mail Weston Chamber about becoming a Member.

So, if you're a Weston-super-Mare or surrounding area business person, please join and increase the strength of our numbers, so we may support and represent all our commercial interests with strength in our numbers.  Members of other Chambers are warmly invited to join Weston Chamber and thereby contribute to inter-Chamber relationships, such as the close associations with North Somerset Chamber of Commerce and Bristol Chamber of Commerce.  

Regular meetings, events and themed or educational seminars, social evenings and lunches are held that are also open to non-members to attend and experience the benefits of Membership first-hand. 

For the small independent networker, there are many opportunities to build relationships and deal directly with our growing Membership base (up 30% year on year), and potentially many of their contacts, certainly many more than at a regular breakfast networking meeting for example, and at £20 a year (no VAT), at least 20 times cheaper! You also have indirect access to a commercial force with in excess of 3,000 Members of Business West with whom Weston Chamber is Affiliated and Weston Chamber is also a member of the South West Association of Chambers of Commerce. 

Our Membership is drawn from individuals, business people and companies actively engaged in commerce in the general area in and around Weston-super-Mare and Weston Chamber gives them a central point of commercial reference and representation, in addition to that important interaction and unity with other business people. 

Make you voice heard. Join Weston Chamber. We're on YOUR side and working for our Members. Click here to e-mail the New Membership team.

Facts & Figures

Weston-super-Mare is the largest Town in the County of North Somerset, and is famous for its historic victorian seafront and of course many happy holiday makers and tourists. The tourism supported and commercially derived revenue produces a thriving and prosperous local economy. Weston-super-Mare has a strong non-tourist commercial aspect and offers all the advantages of a superb business georaphical location in the South West of England, with a wide range of employment sites and commercial properties, and from an economic perspective, approximately 33% of the 80,000 strong population, are in the crucial 20-44 "economically productive with disposible incomes" age group.

 

 

The local labour force boasts a diverse range of skills from high tech to crafts, manufacturing to catering and from agricultural to financial. The large pool of talent available in the area is thanks to the high quality of the local schools, which have one of the highest exam pass rates in the country. More than 12,000 students qualify annually from Weston-super-Mare's College of further education alone.

Weston-super-Mare's historic victorian seafront is situated just 4 miles from junction 21 of the M5, with all the main business sites located close to the new dual-carriageway ring road into the town centre. The M5 and it's link to the M4, mean that the Midlands, Plymouth and London are all readily accessible from Weston-super-Mare by 'fast road'. Bristol International Airport is just 15 miles away and there is also a Mainline Station at Worle on the outskirts of Weston-super-Mare.

Many major companies have become as convinced of the desirability of Weston-super-Mare and relocated to the Town. Recently German retailers Lidl have moved to the area, creating 250 jobs, to add to the growing portfolio of high quality companies such GKN Westlands, Brymon Airways, Clarks and First Group, who are already firmly established in Weston-super-Mare.

It is now widely accepted that Weston-super-Mare is no longer a sleepy Victorian town that only came alive when the tourists arrived. It is a vibrant and bustling commercial town that provides employment for many of the populace and the the many Traders that operate businesses in the town.

Within the Town Centre you will find a comprehensive range of architecture, gardens, cafes, restaurants, small specialist shops in the labyrinth of back streets and of course the traditional High Street shops.

Weston is a safe place to shop with ample secure and free car parking, wide and well maintained pavements and pedestrian only areas.

Weston-super-Mare Town Centre Partnership with whom Weston-super-Mare and District Chamber of Trade and Commerce has close working links, was established in 1998 to help develop the Town Centre, to support the traders and to provide a safe, friendly and lively place for people to come to shop and work.

The Weston Town Centre Partnership involves businesses that operate in Weston-super-Mare. Within this area there are hundreds of businesses, small and large, that operate in the town. Many of these are members of the Partnership and contribute towards its operation and Executive Members of the Town Centre Partnership often attend Chamber Meetings to discuss and address matters and issues of mutual concern to the respective Membership of both Weston Chamber and the Town Centre Partnership.

As a dynamic Membership benefit driven organisation established for over 50 years, Weston Chamber also enjoys strong actively utilised links with many industry and community bodies and organisations throughout North Somerset and the West of England, to further the economic strength of our district and region.  Click here to e-mail us about joining Weston-super-Mare and District Chamber of Trade and Commerce. We look forward to hearing from you.

Factual Sources: North Somerset Council, Economic Development Unit  

Photographic images supplied with the kind permission and courtesy of Weston Chamber Member (Official Chamber Photographer): Volkan Photography