Good morning and welcome to this week’s Friday Brief.
We would like to bring your attention to a new export directory that aims to promote British goods on an unprecedented scale. Potential overseas customers and buyers from global markets will be able to search for UK companies and organisations that will supply the products, services and skills they need. Find out how you can get involved with this great new project below.
We have recently moved our HR support line from Croner to Peninsula, this is an MTA Members benefit open to all members of the association. To find out how access this please see the below story for more details.
The MTA is pleased to announce the Annual Members' Golf Day will be on Thursday 1st September 2016 at Forest of Arden Marriott Hotel & Country Club. Bookings are now being taken, so if you would like to take part please see the story below or contact Alice Smith in the events department for more details on asmith@mta.org.uk.
We would like your input on our, the MTA is developing a new 3-5 year strategy for Learning and Development. This survey is slightly longer than usual MTA surveys but should only take 5-10 minutes of your time. Please forward the link to anyone in your company that this survey would be relevant for. Survey link: http://www.mta.org.uk/ld-member-survey
The MTA is part of Cranfield University’s Manufacturing Co-operative, and as such we are invited to exclusive events. There is a free workshop provided the Manufacturing Co-op, working in collaboration with HSSMI (High Speed Sustainable Manufacturing Institute) is organising. The event will take place at HSSMI’s facilities at the Olympic Park in Stratford on the 15th August starting at 9.30am. For more details please see the story below.
The UK GDP figures published this week showed a strong economy ahead of the EU Referendum, but the quarterly figures hid an underlying trend pointing to a slowdown over the 3 months from a very good April that may have been affected by seasonal adjustment of the data; with almost no data for June included in the estimate - it is based on 44% of the eventual data-set for the quarter – it remains to be seen how effective the ONS’s now-casting has been and it seems we could see a downward revision when we get more data. The release also showed a very strong quarter for the manufacturing industry and we will get more details by month and by industry when the June figures are released in a couple of weeks’ time. While the ONS figures reflect the pre-vote situation, the CBI Industrial Trends Survey is one of the first post-referendum reflections of sentiment; while the backward looking data was consistent with the ONS figures, there was a sharp fall in business confidence and a reduction in investment intentions, although the latter in particular was only back to “average” levels and could have been a lot worse!
That’s all for this week, we’ll be back next Friday with more industry news, from everyone at the MTA enjoy your weekend.