The continuing recovery and success of companies in the Greater Birmingham area are credited with being one of the reasons for record membership figures achieved by the region’s largest business support organisation. Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce (GBCC) returned a record month for membership in November, with over 80 new companies joining the organisation, which covers Birmingham, Solihull, Burton, Lichfield, Tamworth, Chase and Sutton Coldfield.

Paul Kehoe (pictured), the Chamber’s president and chief executive at Birmingham Airport, said: “The team at the GBCC deserves huge credit for achieving a remarkable result during November. “This is the best ever performance since records began and the efforts of our membership team in achieving this reflect the renaissance the region is undergoing in terms of new business at home and abroad. We believe it is important the Chamber is a centre for all businesses in Greater Birmingham to work together to bring prosperity to the region and this is certainly working. We know that through networking and togetherness there is a recipe for success at home and globally. Many businesses regard the Chamber is another arm to their operations, given the wide range of services and support we offer."

“Our International Business Hub has embraced the challenge delivered by the Prime Minister at the Conservative Party conference to create a Global Britain post Brexit. We shall be unstinting in our efforts to take Greater Birmingham business to the rest of the country and the world.”

Paul Faulkner, chief executive of the GBCC, said: “Our record month is a great achievement for the whole Chamber but the front-line of our efforts is the membership team, who have achieved remarkable figures in a notoriously difficult field.

“We will celebrate this success but not relax our efforts. We talk to hundreds of business every month and it is obviously from what they tell us that working together with the Chamber is the best way to business success.

“We have successfully launched Sutton Coldfield Chamber and there is huge interest in the New Year dinner they are sharing with Lichfield and Tamworth at the Belfry. Along with Burton and Chase, this is testament to the diversity of the Chamber’s reach both in terms of geography and membership.

“That extends to Solihull and the region’s important Asian community through the Asian Business Chamber of Commerce, whose dinner this year was again a sell-out months before it took place.

“This is all supported by early indications in our research for the final Quarterly Business Report (QBR) of 2016 of a vibrant Greater Birmingham achieving a steady turn-around for sales both at home and abroad. And it followed two important surveys yesterday which both predicted a boom period for the West Midlands.”

The QBR will be published at the end of December and will be discussed by business leaders at a breakfast event in Birmingham on January 19.