British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) is a British trade association of manufacturers and distributors of equipment for the education market. Its members supply to both the UK and international markets.
The association has more than 400 members, with a combined annual turnover in excess of £1.8 billion. All BESA members subscribe to a code of practice intended to offer buyers peace of mind. In 1996, the association sued the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation, claiming that the council-owned body was engaging in unfair competition by trading outside its local area. [1] In 2009, the association predicted a drop in IT spending by schools. [2] [3]
The economy of the United Kingdom is a highly developed social market economy. It is the sixth-largest national economy in the world measured by nominal gross domestic product (GDP), tenth-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP), and twenty second-highest by nominal GDP per capita, constituting 3.1% of nominal world GDP. By PPP terms, the UK constitutes 2.3% of world GDP.
Fair trade is a term for an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and environmental standards. The movement focuses in particular on commodities, or products that are typically exported from developing countries to developed countries but is also used in domestic markets, most notably for handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, wine, sugar, fruit, flowers and gold.
The economy of Bangladesh is a major developing market economy. As the second-largest economy in South Asia, Bangladesh's economy is the 34th largest in the world in nominal terms, and 25th largest by purchasing power parity. Bangladesh is seen by various financial institutions as one of the Next Eleven. It has been transitioning from being a frontier market into an emerging market. Bangladesh is a member of the South Asian Free Trade Area and the World Trade Organization. In fiscal year 2021–2022, Bangladesh registered a GDP growth rate of 7.2% after the global pandemic. Bangladesh is one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Skanska AB is a multinational construction and development company based in Sweden. Skanska is the fifth-largest construction company in the world according to Construction Global magazine. Notable Skanska projects include renovation of the United Nations Headquarters, the World Trade Center Transportation Hub project, Moynihan Train Hall, 30 St Mary Axe, MetLife Stadium, Mater Dei Hospital, among others.
Anti-competitive practices are business or government practices that prevent or reduce competition in a market. Antitrust laws ensure businesses do not engage in competitive practices that harm other, usually smaller, businesses or consumers. These laws are formed to promote healthy competition within a free market by limiting the abuse of monopoly power. Competition allows companies to compete in order for products and services to improve; promote innovation; and provide more choices for consumers. In order to obtain greater profits, some large enterprises take advantage of market power to hinder survival of new entrants. Anti-competitive behavior can undermine the efficiency and fairness of the market, leaving consumers with little choice to obtain a reasonable quality of service.
Mastercard Inc. is the second-largest payment-processing corporation worldwide. It offers a range of payment transaction processing and other related-payment services. Its headquarters are in Purchase, New York. Throughout the world, its principal business is to process payments between the banks of merchants and the card-issuing banks or credit unions of the purchasers who use the Mastercard-brand debit, credit and prepaid cards to make purchases. Mastercard has been publicly traded since 2006.
Becta, originally known as the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, was a non-departmental public body funded by the Department for Education and its predecessor departments, in the United Kingdom. It was a charity and a company limited by guarantee. The abolition of Becta was announced in the May 2010 post-election spending review. Government funding was discontinued in March 2011. Becta went into liquidation in April 2011.
Coles Supermarkets Australia Pty Ltd, trading as Coles, is an Australian supermarket, retail and consumer services chain, headquartered in Melbourne as part of the Coles Group. Founded in 1914 in Collingwood by George Coles, Coles operates 846 supermarkets throughout Australia, including several now re-branded Bi-Lo Supermarkets. Coles has over 120,000 employees and accounts for around 27 per cent of the Australian market. Coles' large head office site in Melbourne's inner south-east has 4,000 employees of the workforce located inside.
The Body Shop International Limited, trading as The Body Shop, is a British cosmetics, skin care and perfume company.
A trade show, also known as trade fair, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and customers, study activities of rivals, and examine recent market trends and opportunities.
Besa or BESA may refer to:
The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), supporting the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (GEMA), is the government regulator for the electricity and downstream natural gas markets in Great Britain. It was formed by the merger of the Office of Electricity Regulation (OFFER) and Office of Gas Supply (Ofgas).
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economic regulator. The intention was for the OFT to make markets work well for consumers, ensuring vigorous competition between fair-dealing businesses and prohibiting unfair practices such as rogue trading, scams, and cartels. Its role was modified and its powers changed by the Enterprise Act 2002.
The United Kingdom is home to a widespread and diverse co-operative movement, with over 7,000 registered co-operatives owned by 17 million individual members and which contribute £34bn a year to the British economy. Modern co-operation started with the Rochdale Pioneers' shop in the northern English town of Rochdale in 1844, though the history of co-operation in Britain can be traced back to before 1800. The British co-operative movement is most commonly associated with The Co-operative brand which has been adopted by several large consumers' co-operative societies; however, there are many thousands of registered co-operative businesses operating in the UK. Alongside these consumers' co-operatives, there exist many prominent agricultural co-operatives (621), co-operative housing providers (619), health and social care cooperatives (111), cooperative schools (834), retail co-operatives, co-operatively run community energy projects, football supporters' trusts, credit unions, and worker-owned businesses.
Criticism has been directed at Tesco from various groups, including national organisations, trade bodies, individuals, consumer groups and watchdogs, particularly since the early 2000s.
SIMS is a student information system, i.e. a school management information system, currently developed by Education Software Solutions. It is the most widely used MIS in UK schools, claiming over 80% market share across the primary and secondary sectors.
The New National Consumer Council, operating as Consumer Futures, was a non-departmental public body and statutory consumer organisation in England, Wales, Scotland, and, for postal services, Northern Ireland. It was established by the Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act 2007, and began operations in 2008 by the merging of Postwatch, Energywatch and the Welsh, Scottish and National Consumer Councils under the Consumer Focus brand.
Sportech PLC is an online gambling and entertainment company headquartered in the United Kingdom. The company is traded on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol SPO.L; the stock is a component of the Alternative Investment Market. The company, formerly known as Rodime PLC, was originally an electronics company specialising in hard disk drives based in Scotland. In 2000, the company changed its name to Sportech PLC, after acquiring Littlewoods Pools from The Littlewoods Organisation for £160 million.
Converge ICT Solutions Inc., commonly referred to as Converge, is a telecommunication service provider in the Philippines. It operates fiber optic broadband networks, Internet Protocol television, cable television, and cable Internet in the country. It had 1,969,663 FiberX subscribers as of June 2023 capturing 54% of the market share of fiber to the home in the country. As of 2022, the Converge fiber backbone reached 600,000 kilometers, passing through 495 cities and municipalities across the country.
At around £290 billion every year, public sector procurement accounts for around a third of all public expenditure in the UK. EU-based laws continue to apply to government procurement: procurement is governed by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, Part 3 of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015, and the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations of 2015 and 2016. These regulations implement EU law, which applied in the UK prior to Brexit, and also contain rules known as the "Lord Young Rules" promoting access for small and medium enterprise (SMEs) to public sector contracts, based on Lord Young's Review Growing Your Business, published in 2013.