Bristol Business Guide

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Hi Tech
The sector provides employment for
17,300 people in the West of England
(of which 6,500 are in the city of
Bristol) and is growing.
The area is home to one of the largest
clusters of silicon designers outside
of Silicon Valley, and according to
Centre for Cities/McKinsey & Co, the
only tech cluster in the UK named as
fast growing and globally significant.
High profile names include Hewlett
Packard, Imagination Technologies,
Toshiba, IBM and XMOS.
Bristol is an established ‘Science City’
with a strong cluster of businesses at
the Bristol & Bath Science Park at
Emersons Green Enterprise Area and
a range of businesses supporting the
Health, Social Care and Life Sciences,
Low Carbon, Advanced Engineering
and Aerospace sectors.
High Tech Bristol and Bath works with
high tech companies in the region
promoting, enhancing and developing
technology. They do this by running
Special Interest Groups that bring
together companies, universities,
research institutions, public sector,
and not-for-profit organisations.
See
Creative and
Digital Industries
This fast growing sector provides
employment for 16,800 people in the
West of England (of which 9,200 are in
the city of Bristol).
Excelling in digital and commercial
content, Bristol and Bath rank among
the top ten creativity and innovation
hotspots in the UK according to the
National Endowment for Science,
Technology and the Arts (NESTA).
Bristol has internationally-renowned
names such as the Oscar-winning
Aardman Animation, the BBC and their
Natural History Unit, Endemol’s Deal or
No Deal, Tigress, McCann Erickson and
Icon Films.
Bristol Media is one of the biggest
industry-led creative networks in the
UK with almost 500 members across
the digital, TV, animation, design,
marketing, PR, publishing, film and
advertising sectors. See
There are several key locations within
Bristol acting as creative hubs,
attracting a range of businesses and
organisations of all sizes:
• Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise
Zone - with the Engine Shed, TCN
Temple Studios and the Paintworks.
• The Harbourside/Centre - with
Aardman Animations, MShed
Museum, Watershed, Arnolfini, Spike
Island, Bristol Hippodrome, Bristol
Old Vic and the Colston Hall.
• Park Street, West End and
Whiteladies Road – with the City of
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, Royal
West of England Academy, Christmas
Steps Arts Quarter, St George’s
Bristol, Victoria Rooms and the BBC.
• Stokes Croft – with Hamilton House,
Games Hub, Jamaica Street Artists,
PRSC and Cube Cinema.
• South Bristol - with the Bottle
Yard, Knowle West Media Centre,
the Tobacco Factory and Bath
Road Studios.
The Bottle Yard provides
300,000sq ft of film studio
space, the largest production
facility in the South West already
attracting interest nationally and
internationally. Productions at
the studios include: Disney/ABC
Studios’ fairytale Galavant, BBC
Two drama Wolf Hall, BBC One
drama Poldark, Sky 1 HD comedy
Trollied, Channel 4 gameshow
Deal or No Deal, Channel 4
comedy The Mimic and Channel
4 drama New Worlds.
There is a strong commitment to
the sector from our educational
institutions, including the Bristol
School of Animation at UWE, which
is linked to some of the UK’s major
animation practitioners.
Low Carbon
(Environmental
Technology & Services)
Bristol is recognised as one of the
leading UK centres of environmental
technologies and services and received
global recognition as European Green
Capital in 2015. The sector provides
many opportunities to create jobs,
develop skills, increase community
resilience and energy security, improve
companies’ bottom line and enhance
the economy through actions to move
to a low carbon economy.
The Low Carbon sector is growing fast.
Businesses in waste and water provide
employment for around 5,400* alone
within the West of England (of which
1,900 are in the city of Bristol). There
are clearly overlaps with other sectors
– Construction & Development and
Advanced Engineering & Aerospace,
so actual numbers in the sector are
much higher.
The city has a nucleus of high profile
companies in renewable energy, water
and waste management, recycling,
energy control, sustainable transport
and environmental consultancy
services. A world-class marine energy
cluster includes Siemens Marine
Current Turbines, Alstom Tidal
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