{"id":956354,"date":"2026-05-13T05:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/956354\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T05:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:20:14","slug":"bristol-blue-glass-asks-why-do-business-in-the-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/956354\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol Blue Glass asks: \u201cWhy do business in the UK?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Just 18 miles away, another heritage firm, Bath Aqua Glass, has taken steps to cut costs in an effort to survive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The company moved its factory out of Bath city centre to Corsham after its 18-year lease came to an end, reduced their visitor experiences from five a week to just two and cut its workforce by more than half. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Its managing director, Themis Mikellides, stressed cost of fuel was always a major pressure, explaining the furnace alone costs \u00a34 per minute to run when they are shaping glass. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He rejected the idea the business should be seen as a luxury, describing it as a &#8220;national treasure&#8221; rooted in centuries of regional history that dates back to the Roman times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;This is an opportunity right now for central government to look at things and think &#8216;We can do something to protect this industry, and we can do something to support and nurture&#8230;reduce tax altogether, or we can just reduce it massively&#8217;.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He added that lowering VAT would benefit both businesses and the government. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It&#8217;s better to get 5% of something than 20% of nothing.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just 18 miles away, another heritage firm, Bath Aqua Glass, has taken steps to cut costs in an&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":956355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-956354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116565588494350598","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=956354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/956354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/956355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=956354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=956354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=956354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}