Business and Industry
Gloucester has a long history in the aerospace business. In 1926 the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company at Brockworth changed its name to the Gloster Aircraft Company because international customers claimed that the name "Gloucestershire" was too difficult to spell. A sculpture in the city centre celebrates Gloucester's aviation history and its involvement in the jet engine. Frank Whittle's pioneering turbojet engine powered the first British jet aircraft, which first flew at the company's airfield at Brockworth. This is commemorated by the pub "The Whittle" at Gloucester Business Park, which now occupies the site. Roads in the Business Park are named after other Gloster aircraft, and a small statue overlooks the site of the old main runway. Messier-Dowty's landing gear plant and Smiths Aerospace Dowty Propellers plants are on the outskirts of the city.
Gloucester is home to the headquarters of Cheltenham & Gloucester at Barnwood, a major mortgage lender, and now a subsidiary of Lloyds TSB. The large insurer Ecclesiastical Insurance is based in the city, as is its owner, the charity Allchurches Trust.
Gloucester was the home of Priday, Metford and Company Limited, a family milling firm which survived for over one hundred years, and hydraulic engineering firm Fielding & Platt.
Gloucester Business Park is a business park on the outskirts on the city and is home to a number of big brands including Fortis and Detica.
Read more about this topic: Gloucester
Famous quotes containing the words business and/or industry:
“Art is the beautiful way of doing things. Science is the effective way of doing things. Business is the economic way of doing things.”
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915)
“Whatever I may be, I want to be elsewhere than on paper. My art and my industry have been employed in making myself good for something; my studies, in teaching me to do, not to write. I have put all my efforts into forming my life. That is my trade and my work.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)