Region's small businesses showcase themselves at Downing Street

By Nicky Godding

13 May 2022

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Some of the region's most successful small businesses showcased themselves at the Prime Minister's Spring Showcase at Downing Street this week to fly the flag for British food and consumer goods and showcase small independent businesses which are exporting their goods internationally.

Ten businesses held market stalls across Downing Street to exhibit their finest products including Stroud Valley’s based Soap Folk and Malmesbury-based manufacturing and project engineering company Alvan Blanch.

Alvan Blanch specialises in the design and supply of machines and integrated systems for processing agricultural crops and waste materials.
Alvan Blanch have the processing solution for most of the world’s crops.

Stroud MP, Siobhan Baillie was on hand to support Soap Folk, help show off their products and introduce the team to cabinet members including the International Trade Secretary - Anne-Marie Trevelyan, as well as Victoria Prentis - Minister of State at DEFRA and Jo Churchill MP.

Soap Folk founder Fiona McBryde said: “It was a surreal experience, particularly chatting to the Prime Minister but it was great to have an opportunity to show off our small business to a wider audience and to be able to fly the creative flag for the Stroud Valleys as well as UK small businesses. “

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.