Each Friday, Punchline-Gloucester.com editor Mark Owen is joined by leading Gloucestershire business figures from a range of backgrounds to review Fridays national & regional newspapers, discuss what is happening in their own business sector and in their own individual businesses.

Finally, they round off by picking the stories that have caught their eye in this week's Punchline-Gloucester.com.

Sponsored by Hazlewoods - Accountants and Business Advisers 

Taking their places on the business briefing panel this week were:

• Chris Creed, chief executive of Creed Foodservice. The company has more than 400 employees across three locations with its HQ in Gloucester - turnover last year approx. £63million, down from £85million due to the pandemic.
• Peter Miles, managing director of Forge Engineering and Forge Motorsport. The company employs 54 staff at its Gloucester factory on Bristol Road, they also have five staff in USA and five in Taiwan - with a turn over last year of £6.5million.
• Nicholas Stafford, associate director at Hazlewoods. Hazlewoods employ more than 400 staff at three locations in Gloucester and Cheltenham. Nick is an insolvency expert for the firm.
• Michaela Cozens, operations director at Gloucestershire Enterprise Ltd. The company has been training people for 21 years, they have 25 staff (associates) and train approximately 1,000 people a year. The turnover pre-pandemic was in excess of £1million, however this dropped to just over £400,000. The company has seen a steady rise in the number of businesses wishing to have face to face training again.

It is a lively informative chat with the panel working their way through the national papers before getting behind the nitty gritty of their own businesses and marketplace.

The panel fire through lots of subjects, with news and views and there is something to learn for everyone who is interested in business from the people who are at the sharp end of running their companies. It is well worth the investment of time to listen to four top experts - in business you never stop learning.