No sooner had the spectacular fireworks over London fizzled out than the airwaves and columns were filled with gloomy warnings from pundits of every hue about the outlook for 2011.

The new 20 per cent VAT rate kicked in as soon as the holidays finished. Fuel prices have gone through the roof due to soaring commodity prices and a higher tax grasp to boost the Treasury’s coffers.

The freezing winter has forced most to keep the heating on all hours, and goodness knows what that will cost.

And this is the year when the Government spending cuts and austerity measures will cease to be just announcements and actually take affect.

But there are glimmers amid the gloom.

A number of recent business surveys, including the latest from Bradford Chamber of Commerce, have pointed to a brighter outlook for industry and commerce. Certainly, most agree that firms are starting from a better place than they did a year ago.

Morrisons raised like-for-like sales by one per cent over Christmas, in spite of the bad weather. And the Bradford-based company is set to create another 6,000 jobs this year.

Many pundits expect Morrisons’ growth to be pegged back due to fiercer competition from key rivals, but chief executive Dalton Philips said the company expected to unveil the highest profit growth of the ‘big four’ supermarkets when it unveils its full-year figures in March.

He rightly paid tribute to the firm’s 130,000 staff who kept its stores and petrol stations open through the big freeze, often at inconvenience to themselves.

Ferno UK, which employs 80 people at its Cleckheaton site, making emergency patient handling equipment, reported a 13.3 per cent rise in sales to more than £11 million last year.

Exports increased by 100 per cent to £1.6 million in spite of tough conditions, and demand from the NHS remained strong.

Engineers at Brighouse-based cutting tool specialist Brunswick Tooling developed an award-winning process that slashed the production time for key fighter aircraft components from three days to five minutes, ensuring BAE Systems can achieve its target of delivering an F-35 Lightning II a day by 2015.

Entrepreneur John Green is expecting 20 per cent growth in his Bradford-based office machine supplies business after taking over two other dealerships.

Commerce Business Systems, of Laisterdyke, acquired firms in Sheffield and Leeds with the help of a £30,000 loan from Finance Yorkshire, the regional investment fund. Turnover is predicted to rise from £1.4 million to £1.7 million within 12 months.

Austerity is bringing dividends for Bradford chartered accountants Watson Buckle, which is winning business from its bigger rivals as companies look to cut costs.

Bradford-based Yorkshire Building Society has aggressive plans to expand its high-street presence and tackle what it claims are ‘indiscriminate’ closures by some of its rivals by expanding its network of local agencies.

There are countless other examples of go-ahead local companies remaining confident in spite of the difficult climate.

The success and achievements of local firms and entrepreneurs will be celebrated and recognised in the T&A Bradford Means Business Awards in March.