West Midlands Chambers of Commerce LLP is a collaborative partnership of the 6 Chambers of Commerce in the

West Midlands region The West Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of International Territorial Level for statistical purposes. It covers the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. The region consists ...

of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It brings together the regions Chambers of Commerce, which between them have over 9,000 companies as registered members.

Organisation

The head office of the WMCC is located in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

, at the same address as the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce. It operates through delivery teams based at the offices of its member chambers, giving it a total of six offices. As well as Birmingham these are located in

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

, Stoke-on-Trent,

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

and

Telford Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in t ...

. The head of the WMCC is currently its Managing Director Allen Matty MBE, along with the chair of the Board Louise Bennett OBE DL. In total there are 21 employees within WMCC, the 6 regional Chambers employs a further 28 specialist International Trade advisers who support businesses in the region to develop there international trade potential

Membership

The West Midlands Chambers of Commerce LLP has six member chambers, each of which is an accredited member of the British Chambers of Commerce. The members are: * Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce Group * Black Country Chamber of Commerce * Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce * Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce * Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce * Shropshire Chamber of Commerce Between them these chambers have a total membership of over 9,000 businesses.

Activities

The WMCC describes its core mission as "the delivery of specialist business services across the West Midlands" . A priority is developing international trade and investment in the West Midlands area. The WMCC acts as a single point of contact for government agencies (The Department for International Trade) or other private sector entities who wish to place contracts for the delivery of business support services across the West Midlands region: it can act as both contractor and contract manager.

Emphasis on exports

The WMCC is working with businesses, and lobbying the government and local authorities, to increase the emphasis on exports for manufacturers based in the West Midlands. In May 2013 WMCC introduced a new service aimed at making it easier for businesses to export. This involves providing a simple way to generate all the documentation required to ship goods overseas, including letters of credit, by using a centralised management system. This allows a business to enter the information once rather than having to do it repeatedly for each individual document. Online training courses are also being developed to teach business owners the special requirements of international trade.The Business Desk, 30 April 2013
WMCC pilots new export service for region's SMEs
retrieved 20 July 2013.

References

{{Authority control West Midlands (region)