County smashes record for number of new businesses

Statistics, compiled by www.informdirect.co.uk, have revealed that there were 4,650 companies formed in 2014, up from a previous best of 4,053.

This brings the total number of businesses operating in the region to a high of 30,851.

Henry Catchpole, CEO of Inform Direct, said: “This is clearly an area where fledgling firms are flourishing and where people are starting to make their dreams a reality in the word of business.”

There were 1,504 new companies in Warwick, 1,038 in the Stratford district and 934 in Rugby.

Taking into account companies dissolved in 2014, there’s 6.3 per cent more companies in Warwickshire than a year ago and 25 per cent more than five years previously.

There are more companies in Warwickshire than neighbouring Worcestershire but less than Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and the West Midlands.

However, when the figures are adjusted for population Warwickshire fares better than any of its neighbours, with 56.5 companies per 1,000 people in the county. That’s also ahead of the national average.

Last year in the UK as a whole, 586,784 new businesses were registered with Companies House taking the total number to a record high of 3,509,084.