Real or not? The economic and cultural renaissance of Gloucester

Once upon a time tourism and Gloucester were not obvious bedfellows, but times change. Businesses and others tell us whether a £246m visitor spend in the city is part of a far bigger narrative.

Dears readers,

We hope you have had a good week and 2025 has started well.

Today’s lead story below was sparked by a press release that went out this week and duly run up the flag by all on sundry about the increased number of visitors to Gloucester and what that means for the city’s economy.

It feels like good economic news takes some panning around for at the moment, so we thought we’d see if this news - of a sizeable spend by visitors to Gloucester with more to come - was reflected in the mood on the ground.

We asked around in the city to see what people thought of the attempt to single out the county’s capital as a regenerating jewel in Gloucestershire’s crown, both culturally and economically.

Did life in the city really reflect the impressive visitor spend numbers we are being fed? Is the idea of a renaissance (our words, not Visit Gloucester’s) believable, or are we staring at a mirage way back down the road towards that sought-after destination?

We usually paywall our Friday editions for our paying subscribers, as regular readers will know, as it costs money to do journalism on these kinds of stories. And that’s what we’re about - building a credible, reputable digital platform for Gloucestershire for you. A platform that helps tell the county’s stories and the story of the county in a way you’d want it told. No pop-ups, no listicles, no unedited press releases.

Before that main read we have our usual business shorts and a story about a fast-growing major engineering firm in Tewkesbury bouncing back into profit in a stellar way.

That story is part of the perpetual Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series, sponsored by Randall & Payne, which sees us track the financial fortunes of the county’s biggest firms. That series is for our paying subscribers only, as are all our stories after two weeks when the paywall falls across them (except a select few).

We’ve had a flurry of subscribers of late.

Please do think about referring friends and colleagues to us too. If you received this edition via email you’ll see why if you can see the footer. Every referral counts and builds towards free subscriptions for you to see past the paywalls.

Or you can simply go for it and sign up for 2025. You’ll be supporting a community interest company that really cares about the county, and you’ll be helping keep alive real community journalism in Gloucestershire.

Have a great weekend.

Andrew Merrell (editor).

NB: We believe Raikes now publishes probably the best-read business-related email ‘newsletter’, pound for pound, in Gloucestershire. Readership is growing and 2025 looks good!

If you have a story, an issue, a news item, a charity or an interview you want us to write about or investigate, challenge the powers that be on, then please email me: andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.

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Your Briefing Notes

🌦️ We carry another first-person piece by Ian Mean, until recently the county director of Business West and a well-known friend of the county’s business community. According to Mean 2025 may or may not be a good year, we just don’t know yet, but it will prove tough for many - not least because of measures laid down in the last Budget. We’ve said as much ourselves, outlining the potentially significant and serious impact on our county’s charities. You can read that here. Mean does manage to find a major positive for us all to think about through. Perhaps the year won’t be so bad afterall. You can read it here.

🛒 Stroud’s shopping centre, Five Valleys, has released its figures for the Christmas period. Apparently footfall for November and December 2024 was up considerably on the previous year. In December it was 14 per cent up and in November 21 per cent. Car park arrivals were up 12 per cent and across the year that figure was up 5.7 per cent. Five Valleys puts it down to a host of new companies joining the throng at its town centre venue. It’s food hall also cntinues to be a big draw, with new additions here too. Work is underway on the penultaime phase of redevelopment of the centre which will add even more retail and residential space later in 2025.

🤝🏻The newly reformed Western Gateway all-party parliamentary group (APPG) met on Tuesday (7 January) to discuss how best to support efforts of businesses and local leaders to attract investment and improve connections across a national border. The Western Gateway is a pan-regional partnership for South Wales and Western England, reaching from Swindon to St David’s in Pembrokeshire. The reforming of the APPG follows many local MPs and peers sending an open letter in support of the Western Gateway to the UK Government in response to a consultation on the future of pan-regional partnerships.

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Top 100 catch-up: Major engineering firm returns to profit in style

As we play a little catch-up reporting the financial results of some of Gloucestershire’s biggest businesses we discover an engineering giant in Tewkesbury boosted by a near 30 per cent increase in turnover.

One of the best-known engineering firms in Gloucestershire, and a major employer in the county, quietly returned to profit last year in some style, boosted by a 29 per cent increase in turnover. The Tewkesbury-based business has customers worldwide, is part of a much bigger American-owned group that services the aerospace, defence and industrial markets. As Raikes seeks to catch up with some of the outstanding results of 2024 as part of our Top 100 business in Gloucestershire series, sponsored by Randall & Payne, we turn our attention to Moog Controls Ltd, which employs 524 staff (up from 500 the previous year) at its UK headquarters at Ashchurch, Tewkesbury. The Top 100 series follows the financial fortunes of the county’s biggest firms by turnover. Back in 2023 the Moog Controls confirmed its commitment to the county by opening a new £40 million manufacturing facility beside its existing base off the A46.

Read the full story here and peruse the rest of our growing Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire stories in our Reports and Deals channel.

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* Everything you read on The Raikes Journal is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.

If you upgrade to paid you’ll be part of this community interest company too. We are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers, and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls often put on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series. You will be able to comment on our stories too. You’ll be helping make this CIC sustainable.

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What to do this weekend…

Friday:

🏉 Gloucester Rugby plays Welsh rivals Scarlets today at 8pm at Kingsholm.

Saturday:

🏉 Gloucester-Hartpury play Loughborough Lightning at 2pm at Kingsholm.

⚽ Gloucester City FC play Bracknell Town away at 3pm.

⚽ Cheltenham Town FC play AFC Wimbledon away at 3pm.

Sunday:

📽️ The Roses theatre in Tewkesbury has a number of films on show including Nightbitch, The Flight of Bryan and Conclave.

Tuesday:

🏘️ 💷 Investment property owners through to those considering investing in the residential rental market are invited to a seminar by Willans LLP solicitors. The event, called ‘A Guide to managing your investment property in 2025’ will feature the Cheltenham firm’s head of residential property, Suzanne O’Riordan, James Melvin-Bath, who heads Willans’ residential landlord and tenant disputes team, along with guest speakers Vanessa Clark (Azets) and Paul Davis (Ludice Wealth Management). Due to take place at Gloucester Guild Hall on Tuesday 14 January from 5.30pm to 7pm. Find out more here.

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Real or not? The economic and cultural renaissance of Gloucester

Once upon a time tourism and Gloucester were not obvious bedfellows, but times change. Businesses and others tell us whether a £246m and growing visitor spend in the city is part of a far bigger narrative.

By Andrew Merrell

When figures were released this week telling us tourism was now worth an estimated £300 million-plus to Gloucester and that was only expected to rise we were not the only ones whose ears pricked up.

But rather than just post the press release about the data we thought we’d ask those invested in the city – a city once near guaranteed to not to talk itself up - what they thought it saw about Gloucester.

Was this just an impressive number with no real way of understanding what it meant, or was it part of a much bigger narrative about the rise and rise of a city no longer able to ignore the momentum of its own quiet renaissance.

First the figures, then the insight - from those at the real heart of the city.