This paper is concerned with a competition and cooperation system with multiple constant delays relating to economic enterprise. The stability of the unique positive equilibrium is investigated and the existence of Hopf bifurcations is demonstrated by analysing the associated characteristic equation. Furthermore, the explicit formulae determining the stability and the direction of periodic solutions bifurcating from Hopf bifurcations are obtained by applying centre manifold theory and the normal form method. Finally, special attention is paid to some numerical simulations in order to support the theoretical predictions.