On The Up PR is targeting up-and-coming businesses across the region, according to founder Rob Stewart

A former national newspaper journalist has launched a public relations agency in Bristol for up-and-coming businesses. On The Up PR has been set up by ex-Daily Telegraph journo Rob Stewart and is aimed at SMEs across the South West business community.

The company will build on his experience working in regional and national media, he said, as well as a decade in charity communications with the Alzheimer’s Society and five years with local PR agencies.

“The South West is a real hotbed of entrepreneurial activity and that has inspired me to launch On The Up PR,” said Mr Stewart.

“I know from experience there are lots of amazing stories waiting to be told by the business leaders who are driving forward the region’s start-ups, scale-ups and more established companies.

“And I’m really looking forward to working with those firms which are committed to using media activity as a vehicle for growth – sometimes for the first time.”

Mr Stewart, who is based in the Westbury Park area of Bristol, says he has been “on a steep learning curve” since moving away from full-time journalism but counts himself “lucky to have worked for some brilliant PR people in the South West and to have achieved what are regarded as amazing results for clients”.

“That success is down to the combination of my core journalistic skills and commercial PR know-how which means I’m now ideally positioned to help companies of all shapes and sizes share their stories to gain meaningful impact,” he added.

Mr Stewart has already secured customers including Enable Law, a South West-based medical negligence and personal injury law firm, and Bristol-based Burleigh Create design agency, while also helping launch a new pickleball enterprise in Surrey.

U.S. employers’ announced job cuts surged in the month of January and hit the highest level since 2009, a new report shows.

Global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that employers announced 108,435 job cuts in January – an increase from the 49,795 cuts announced in the same month last year. Job cuts increased 205% from December, when there were 35,553 layoffs announced.

This January saw the most layoffs for the month since 2009, when 241,749 cuts were announced. It was also the highest monthly total since October 2025, when there were 153,074 layoffs.

“Generally, we see a high number of job cuts in the first quarter, but this is a high total for January. It means most of these plans were set at the end of 2025, signaling employers are less-than-optimistic about the outlook for 2026,” said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

PRIVATE SECTOR ADDED 22,000 JOBS IN JANUARY, WELL BELOW EXPECTATIONS

The transportation sector had the highest number of job cuts in the month of January with 31,243 announced, most of which came from logistics giant UPS announcing 30,000 cuts as it scales back on handling shipments for Amazon.

Technology firms announced 22,291 cuts in January, most of which came from Amazon, which announced 16,000 reductions as it reorganizes its management structure.

“[Amazon] CEO Andy Jassy, like many CEOs recently, has said AI will cost jobs in the coming years, but this cut appears to be due more to over hiring and reducing layers than to the new technology,” Challenger noted.

UPS TO CUT 30,000 MORE JOBS AMID TURNAROUND PLAN

Healthcare companies and health products manufacturers announced 17,107 job cuts in January, which was the most for the sector since April 2020 when 19,453 cuts were recorded.

“Healthcare providers and hospital systems are grappling with inflation and high labor costs. Lower reimbursements from Medicaid and Medicare are also hitting hospital systems. These pressures are leading to job cuts, as well as other cutting measures, such as some pay and benefits,” Challenger said.

Chemical manufacturers announced 4,701 cuts in January, which were primarily driven by an announcement at Dow amid an AI and automation shift.

AMAZON TO CUT 16,000 ROLES AS IT LOOKS TO INVEST IN AI, REMOVE ‘BUREAUCRACY’

The main reasons companies announced layoffs in January were contract loss, which was cited in relation to 30,784 cuts, while market and economic conditions followed with 28,392 cuts.

Other reasons included restructuring (20,044 cuts), closings (12,738) and artificial intelligence (7,624).

Challenger noted that it’s difficult to tell how much an impact AI is having on layoffs, saying that, “We know leaders are talking about AI, many companies want to implement it in operations, and the market appears to be rewarding companies that mention it.”

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The report also found that employers announced 5,306 hiring plans in January, the lowest total for the month since Challenger’s tracking of the metric began in 2009. 

That figure is down from the 6,089 hiring plans announced in the same month last year, as well as from the 10,496 announced in December.

Zurich Insurance

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increase; green up pointing triangle and Beazley BEZ 8.45%increase; green up pointing triangle agreed on an improved takeover bid valuing the U.K. cyber insurer at around 8.0 billion pounds ($10.96 billion).

The Swiss insurer has been courting the London-listed group since last year and in January went public with several offers that were turned down.

Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) reported a steady performance in the December quarter, with profit rising modestly, even as higher expenses limited margin expansion. The state-owned rail infrastructure company posted a net profit of Rs 324 crore in Q3FY26, up about 4% from Rs 312 crore in the same quarter last year. The improvement in profitability came despite marginal growth in topline and continued cost pressures.

Revenue from operations increased 3% YoY to Rs 4,684 crore, compared with Rs 4,567 crore in Q3FY25. Including other income of Rs 252 crore, total income for the quarter stood at Rs 4,936 crore, higher than Rs 4,836 crore a year ago.

Expenses, however, rose at a faster pace than revenue. Total expenses climbed to Rs 4,577 crore during the quarter, from Rs 4,480 crore in the year-ago period. Operating expenses increased to Rs 4,354 crore from Rs 4,219 crore, reflecting higher project execution costs.

As a result, profit before tax came in at Rs 415 crore, broadly flat compared with Rs 413 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

On a nine-month basis, RVNL reported net profit of Rs 689 crore, lower than Rs 822 crore in the same period last year, while revenue from operations rose to Rs 13,716 crore from Rs 13,496 crore.

Alongside the results, the board announced an interim dividend of Rs 1 per share, representing 10% of the paid-up equity share capital, for the financial year 2025–26. The company has fixed February 11 as the record date to determine shareholder eligibility, and the dividend will be paid on or before March 6.

It will be two storeys bigger than Castle Park View – currently the highest building in the city

Work to construct Bristol’s tallest building is set to begin imminently. Developer Olympian Homes was granted planning permission from Bristol City Council in March 2024 to demolish and redevelop the former Haymarket Premier Inn and NCP car park on Rupert Street.

Olympian is now preparing to build a 150-bed, 18-storey co-living tower and a 442-bed, 28-storey purpose built student accommodation block, which will become the highest building in the city.

The Premier Inn, next to the Bearpit, was torn down in May last year. Before the building’s demolition, World War II ordnance experts were brought in to oversee the process after council planners warned there was an “elevated medium risk” of encountering unexploded German bombs, according to our sister site Bristol Live.

The scheme has now received approval from the government’s Building Safety Regulator, which means construction is able to start. It is understood the development is expected to be completed by mid-2028.

“This outcome has been achieved through a highly collaborative approach, underpinned by the expertise of the project’s design team,” a spokesperson for Olympian said.

Once finished, the student block – named St James House – will be two storeys higher than the current tallest building in Bristol – Castle Park View.

The co-living tower will have amenity space inside and outside totalling more than 1,000 sq metres, while the student block will have nearly 850 sq metres of internal and external amenity space. Both buildings will include communal roof terraces, lounges, gyms, cinema rooms and co-working areas.

Improvements will also be made to the surrounding area, according to Olympian, with the addition of 2,150 sq metres of public realm space. This will include a kiosk, a public café, a new park and plaza connecting through to St James’ Park and offers a direct access route to Bristol bus station.

The scheme is being delivered in partnership with Cain, with contractor RG Group responsible for the construction of the buildings.

“Having run this application through the newly formed innovation unit, BSR performance was greatly improved and the whole process was achieved in 14 weeks. This is testament to the working relationship of the whole team,” said Richard Goodwin, construction director of Olympian.

“Olympian Homes continues to advance it’s growth strategy despite a challenging market, remaining focused on the acquisition and redevelopment of high quality urban sites that deliver long term value and support meaningful regeneration,” added chair Mark Slatter.

Bosses at the train manufacturer told in latest accounts how it is ‘investing so it can adapt to a changing market’

Train manufacturer Hitachi Rail saw revenues rise but profits fall in a year in which it said it was continuing investment to “adapt to a changing market”. Hitachi, which has a massive 474,000 sq ft plant in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, has posted accounts for the year ended March 2025 in which revenues rose from £725.1m to £748.4m on the back of higher revenues in operations, service and maintenance.

But the previous year’s operating profit of £5.2m was converted to a loss of £61.9m, a result of the impact of a significant impairment charge made in relation to one particular product. The company makes and supplies rolling stock, railway maintenance and traffic management systems to a host of clients, including ‘British bullet trains’ for HS2 Ltd, battery hybrid trains for Arriva’s Grand Central service, Transpennine Express and East Midlands Railway.

And during the year it said it had “made changing assumptions” over its AT300 SXR Platform development – a specific variant of Hitachi Rail’s AT300 series of trains, which it developed for East Midlands Railway, resulting in the business recognising an impairment charge of £88.5m.

While orders for the particular product could be made in the future, directors said in the accounts: “In the year ending 31 March 2025 a change in assumptions for new market opportunities and new contracts awarded to the company based on a new AT300 platform resulted in a requirement to complete an impairment assessment of the AT300 SXR Platform development. This assessment compared the value in use with the carrying value.”

A breakdown of revenue showed £115.9m came from long term construction contracts and £632.5m from rendering of services. Employee numbers, meanwhile, rose to 2,636, up from 2,610, and an interim dividend of £56.3m was paid.

The accounts also show it made a capital injection in Hitachi ZeroCarbon Limited of £5m, increasing the book value of the investment to £24.99m. Within the report, directors said: “The company continues to explore opportunities for growth and development through bidding for new projects and potential acquisitions.

“The company is investing so it can adapt to a changing market. This includes a greater strategic focus on growth opportunities in digital and green mobility, supported by successfully trialling digital infrastructure monitoring solutions on the UK rail network and developing pioneering battery train technology.

“On 31 May 2024, the company acquired the entire share capital of Centelec UK Limited from Thales SAcfor the acquisition of the Thales’ Ground Transportation Systems (GTS) business. In January 2025, the company agreed to acquire the digital rail monitoring business Omnicom from Balfour Beatty. These acquisitions strengthen the strategic focus on digitalisation and sustainability transformation.”

The company added that it had access to “an uncommitted £415,000,000 Hitachi Group Treasury loan facility and total cash available to the company including the loan facility is in excess of forecast cash requirements for the year. The company’s ultimate parent Hitachi Ltd has also provided a letter of support to 30 June 2026.”

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