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Leicester Business Festival to strengthen business environment in the UK

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By FashionUnited

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Fashion

Running over a two week period between Monday 26th October and Friday 6th November 2015, companies from across Leicestershire will put on dozens of different, high quality business events for the inaugural Leicester Business Festival (LBF). Textiles manufacturing is one of the sectors that has been identified as showing greatly increased growth and has been highlighted as having tremendous potential.

Ranging from business summits, seminars and trade shows to conferences, exhibitions, awards ceremonies, workshops and more, the LBF has serious national and international ambitions. As anyone familiar with Leicester and Leicestershire knows, the area is one of the most culturally diverse and business friendly environments in the United Kingdom.

Leicestershire is one of the most active textile manufacturing centres in the UK with over 700 businesses employing around 11,000 people. Despite being in decline for several years, many UK retailers are switching garment production from abroad back to the UK and the sector looks to continue growing as businesses invest significantly in high technology machinery.

With one of the fastest growing economies in the country, three excellent universities producing around 15,000 graduates each year, one of the best performing Enterprise Zones in Britain and a long line of local businesses with excellent international reputations, Leicestershire has a number of real strengths.

A number of county-based textiles companies have convinced big-name retailers to bring garment making back to Leicester from overseas including Basic Premier, Pantherella and G-Force. There are 9,480 people employed in the sector, which has 1,480 textiles manufacturing firms. It also calculated that the textiles sector is worth more than £500 million to the Leicester economy.

Led by the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP), in partnership with Champions (UK) plc, the festival is set to be an annual event which looks to bring more economic growth across the region with the aim of becoming a nationally and internationally recognised event.

Recent research by the LLEP found that 88 per cent of Leicester's textiles industry employers predict their businesses will grow over the next three years.

Sue Tilley, the LLEP's economic strategy manager, said: "Leicester's manufacturing capabilities include design and sampling, knitting of fabrics and garments, dying and printing of fabric, garment embellishment, production of trims, knitted garments, garment manufacturing, composites, leatherwear and so on.

"The city can provide a complete supply chain solution." There is plenty of scope in getting involved – Leicestershire has the largest economy in the East Midlands, worth £19.4bn a year, and features a wide variety of industry sectors employing around half a million people.

More than 80 events have officially been confirmed in a variety of industries including music, fashion, arts and science. Find out more information on how you can attend by visiting the Leicester Business Festival website.

Leicester Business Festival
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