Fife Chamber CEO Update March 2024

Welcome to our latest Fife Chamber monthly newsletter. Within this update we will bring you the latest feedback on recent events and upcoming news and events which you may be interested in hearing about.

Year End Planning

With the upcoming financial year-end it is always worth considering what you can do to reduce your tax burden as a company owner and the latest article from Thomson Cooper highlights 4 ways to extract profits to reduce tax burden including taking a small salary, paying yourself a dividend, ensuring you have taken some benefits in kind and taking pension contributions.

Events during the Month

Charity Give Away

I was delighted to be able to host our charity partners at Fife Gingerbread in Glenrothes for our ‘Annual Charity Donation’ event on the 29^th of February 2024. We collected over £4,000 in 2023 and our distribution cheques were handed out and gratefully received by our 22 charity partners.

Tri Chamber Networking

We also hosted a well-attended and well-received tri-chamber event at our Premier Partner’s Hotel, ‘The Fairmont’ in St Andrews. It was great to meet members across Perthshire, Dundee and Angus and look forward to further cross-region events in the coming year.

Mitsubishi Factory Tour

I was delighted to welcome 9 Fife Members on a site visit to Mitsubishi’s factory in Livingston when we met up with members from West Lothian Chamber and members from Midlothian Chamber. It was a fascinating tour of a manufacturing site which makes between 5000-10,000 ‘Air Source Heat Pumps’ a month and exports these across the world.

2024-Dragons Den – Social Enterprise Schools

I was delighted to attend the Fife Social Enterprise ‘Dragons Den’ event where we heard pitches from many school children across Fife. There were two overall winners and these will go forward to the Scottish Finals in Edinburgh on the 11^th June.

DYW – Business Breakfast

It was great to help support and to attend the Manufacturing and Engineering Business Breakfast on the 14^th March at the Deanpark Hotel. We were astonished by the number of businesses attending the event and the calibre of pupils who not only attended but stood up and spoke most eloquently about their experiences and how being part of DYW have given them confidence and opportunities that they didn’t believe they would ever have.

Entrepreneurial Accelerator – St Andrews University (Innovation)

I was delighted to be able to assist in the judging panel for the St Andrews Accelerator programme on the 20^th March at the Eden Campus and to hear various interesting student businesses looking for seed funding. Final decisions will be announced on the 4^th April.

Fife Business Awards

Our Category and overall sponsors have chosen their finalists for the Fife Business Awards. Planning for the next stage has started with various filming, interviews and conversations.

Tickets are now available and Stagecoach our co-principal sponsor have been kind enough to provide two coaches to and from the venue to help with transport. Details to follow on our events page.

Membership

May I personally welcome new Members who have joined the Chamber in the last month. Please do get in touch if you have feedback on how we are helping you and your business or how we can help you connect and make your business prosper.

Our plans continue to grow for 2024. To date we have the following dates for your diary.

4^th April – Fife Social – Dumbarnie Links

26^th April - Golf Day – Dunfermline Golf Club (Tickets are still available)

7^th June - Fife Business Awards (Old Course Hotel)

30^th August/27thSeptember – Amazon Accelerator

11th Sep - Business Expo

Stephen Percy-Robb

CEO, Fife Chamber of Commerce