Around 120 people from across the business community gathered for the official launch of Cheltenham Growth Hub at the new MX Centre.

Ruth Dooley, partner at Hazlewoods and vice chair of the Gloucestershire Economic Growth Board, gave guests an overview of The Growth Hub network.

Despite fighting off a cold, she gave an enthusiastic background talk highlighting the benefits of the Growth Hubs, saying with pride that Gloucestershire is the only county to have six Growth Hubs - Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Forest of Dean, Cirencester, Stroud and Cheltenham.

She said: "Since its inception in 2021, Cheltenham Growth Hub has had a significant impact on local businesses - with 234 businesses supported and 63 events, with 556 businesses to Hub8 for co-working, events, support and networking."

Ian Mean, Gloucestershire director of Business West, explained about the economic situation in Gloucestershire and highlighted some of the key projects that will shape the future of the county - the A417 Missing Link, DEEP in the Forest of Dean, Junctions 9 and 10 of the M5, The Forum in Gloucester and the Golden Valley development in Cheltenham.

He also highlighted that Tewksbury borough is the fourth biggest powerhouse in the country for the aerospace industry - with Moog, Safran and GE Aerospace to name a few.

Andrew Roughan, CEO at Plexal, the innovation company which has a majority shareholding in Hub8, introduced four business owners for Grown in Cheltenham. These are new start-ups based at the MX Centre, which he is helping to grow and mentor - Amy Holley-Cribben from Nomadic, James Campbell from Growm, Oliver Johnston from Zest and Alice Violet from Violet Creative.

Each business explained briefly what they did, then took questions and answers from the audience.

They all spoke about the benefits of the MX Centre to their business and the opportunity they have available to meet the audience and network with like-minded people.

The first Growth Hub in the county was Gloucester, launched at the University of Gloucestershire's Oxstalls Campus in 2014. Since then, Gloucestershire's Growth Hubs have supported more than 16,000 businesses - the equivalent of six per day - and have delivered 2,000 events and welcomed 52,000 visitors.

The Growth Hub's core services are:

• Independent advice

• Training

• Events

• Online resources

• Net zero support

• Mentoring programmes

• Co-working and hot-desking

• Meeting and office space hire

Mark Owen, editor of Punchline-Gloucester.com, said: "It's great to see Cheltenham Growth Hub officially launched and bringing many more businesses to use the excellent facilities and help grow their companies. We're very fortunate to have Growth Hubs across the county, offering the support that many businesses need when starting out.

"I wish we'd had The Growth Hubs when I started my business 25 year ago. They provide an excellent service which offers so much to the business community and I strongly recommend people use them. They are an incredible asset to the county."

For more information, go to https://www.thegrowthhub.biz/ or call 01242 809893.