SOME 250 businesses and members of Gloucestershire Chamber of Commerce have been told the organisation is closing its county offices and "amalgamating" with the Bristol, Bath and Wiltshire chamber branches.
Called Business West Chambers of Commerce, the body said it would continue to run events and activities in Gloucestershire and enable members from the county to access all Chamber events and services across what it calls the Business West region.
Suzanne Hall-Gibbins, pictured, who has nurtured a growing and vibrant Gloucestershire Chamber of Commerce over the past three years, has decided to leave Business West to explore new career options.
Speaking to The Business, she said: "I would just like to say that I have enjoyed my seven years with Business West and the variety of roles I have had but the most rewarding has been working directly with local businesses and I am looking forward to continuing to work with the fantastic businesses in Gloucestershire."
Chris Creed, managing director at Creed Foodservice and a Gloucestershire Chamber board member, said it was good news Suzanne would remain in the Gloucestershire business community.
"We were very disappointed in the decision to pull the Chamber back to Bristol and to lose Suzanne to a regional role where we would not have benefited from her knowledge, skills and ability to connect the right people together," he said.
According to the Chamber itself, the move will create "one of the UK's most powerful chambers of commerce".
In a statement, the Chamber said: "As well as improving its chamber operations, Business West is also seeking to extend the scope of its key representation work beyond its core 1,100 chamber members to embrace the views of all 16,000 of its business customers (3,000 in Gloucestershire alone)."
