News

Glasgow-based not-for-profit lender DSL Business Finance Ltd provided over £5.6 million to Scottish SMEs and social enterprises in a record year despite the Covid-19 pandemic. The alternative finance provider saw its funding increase by nearly 25 per cent from £4.5 million in 2019 as it

There are signs of emerging economic recovery and renewed optimism in the Highlands and Islands, according to the latest Business Panel survey undertaken in the region. More than half (57%) of businesses in the Highlands and Islands are now operating at pre-pandemic levels or beyond.

Scottish fintech Origo has been appointed to deliver parts of the central digital architecture for the UK government's Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP). The contract for delivery of the PDP's central technical architecture has been awarded to Capgemini, which will partner with Origo to deliver th

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined Glasgow-based company DialADeal Scotland Ltd (DDSL) £150,000 for making more than half a million nuisance marketing calls. The unsolicited calls were about non-existent Green Deal energy saving schemes including boiler and window repl

Retail stores in Scotland are closing at a faster rate than Great Britain as a whole, largely because it spent longer in lockdown, according to new research by PwC and the Local Data Company (LDC). A total of 780 chain stores closed in the first half of 2021 compared with just 344 openings, a net lo

Stuart MacPherson, business services manager at Meston Reid & Co, considers the tax challenges for hospitality businesses emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic. The UK’s hospitality sector has been harder hit than most by the Covid-19 pandemic and its consequent restrictions.

Bitcoin has controversially become legal tender in El Salvador, the Central American country which gave up its own currency in favour of the US dollar two decades ago. The cryptocurrency can now be used by citizens to shop, pay taxes and buy land, FT reports.

A shopkeeper has been arrested on suspicion of stealing a customer's winning lottery ticket and then attempting to flee the country. The man, who has not been named, was caught by border police at Rome's main airport, The Guardian reports.

Glasgow-based venture capital and private equity firm N4 Partners (N4) has announced that it has appointed former KPMG partner, Phil Charles to its advisory board. Mr Charles has spent over two decades working at KPMG where he was latterly a Senior Partner, leading the global accountancy firm’

Drinks giant Diageo has launched its landmark Johnnie Walker Princes Street visitor experience store. Four and a half years in the making, Johnnie Walker Princes Street is the centrepiece of the firm's £185 million investment in Scotch whisky tourism in Scotland.

Aberdeen tech start-up CryptoDramz is set to be the first in the world to sell limited-edition Scotch whisky collections using digital Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to verify the provenance and future history of each example. An NFT representing the first of 20 custom-made whisky sets in its first coll

Rod Read, a Lewis man who recently moved to Shetland and set up Windswept and Interesting Ltd, has been awarded £40,000 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) to help make kite energy a reality. Mr Read set up Windswept and Interesting Ltd in 2012 when he started developing kite turbines.

Lismore Real Estate Advisors (Lismore) have advised joint venture partners, Chancerygate and JR Capital on the £6.5 million acquisition of G3 Arrol Road in Wester Gourdie Industrial Estate, Dundee from West Ranga Property Group.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) has appointed Joanna Peteranna as interim area manager for the Outer Hebrides. Ms Peteranna takes over from Rachel Mackenzie who leaves HIE on 17 September to become the finance director of MG Alba after eight years with the organisation.

After eighteen torrid months for Scottish business, where jobs and livelihoods have hung in the balance, CBI Scotland is calling on the SNP to use the forthcoming Programme for Government to make good on their election promise to "put the economy first".