News
November 2002
Scoreboard shows that R&D investment pays its way
Companies which make a high level of investment in research and development are more likely to reap benefits in terms of higher sales growth, higher productivity and higher shareholder returns, according to the new R&D Scoreboard published by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI)’s Business, Finance and Investment Unit. The annual report, now in its 12th year, looks at data for the top 600 companies investing in R&D in the UK and the top 600 internationally. It found that R&D investment in the UK is higher than the international average in certain sectors, such as pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, aerospace and defence and health, although it lags behind the international mean in other sectors.
Overall, R&D investment by UK companies is rising, and the gap with the US is narrowing. The average UK investment in R&D, as a percentage of sales, has grown from 1.8 per cent in 1998 to 2.2 per cent in 2002, while in the US the rate has remained constant at 4.3 per cent. The percentage of UK-owned companies that are large enough to qualify for the US scoreboard and which have an R&D intensity of more than 10 per cent has increased, from 4 per cent in 1999 to 11 per cent today. The percentage of US-owned companies in this category increased from 25 per cent to 33 per cent over the same period.
Corporate R&D in the UK is dominated by the pharmaceuticals and biotech sector, which accounts for 36.7 per cent of total expenditure, compared with 16.3 per cent internationally. R&D intensity is also higher in this sector - 14 per cent compared with an international average of 13 per cent. Two UK drugs giants - GlaxoSmithKline and AstroZeneca - together spend $6.9 billion on R&D, 28.5 per cent of the national total.
Internationally, automotive companies are the biggest spenders. Ford led in 2001 with investment of $7.4 billion, followed by General Motors with $6.2 billion. German electronics group Siemens raised its R&D investment by 26 per cent to $6 billion, while US pharmaceutical company Pfizer spent $4.8 billion. The compound annual growth rate of spending by all 600 companies on the international scoreboard has been 7 per cent over the past four years.
The scoreboard - whose theme this year was "Grow your own wealth" - shows that, worldwide, companies are maintaining their R&D budgets despite worsening business conditions. The top 600 companies increased R&D spending by 4 per cent last year, while sales rose by 2 per cent and operating profits plunged by 52 per cent. Even sectors that have been particularly hard hit, such as IT and telecommunications, increased their R&D spend in 2001 (although many will find it harder to maintain spending in the face of continuing losses). In previous recessions R&D has been seen as an easy target for corporate cutbacks.
The DTI’s research over the past few years shows a clear correlation between R&D investment and company performance. It has tracked a portfolio of FTSE 100 companies with the highest R&D intensity since 1996, and has found that they have consistently outperformed the general index. "The Scoreboard once again highlights the importance of R&D to a company’s long-term growth strategy. Taking full advantage of science and innovation is crucial to driving up productivity and generating wealth," commented trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt.
On the other hand, DTI analysis of companies that have adopted a growth strategy based on the acquisition of other companies shows that such a policy usually results in under-performance. A survey of shareholder returns between 1987 and 2000 of 46 quoted companies in the UK and 184 in the US - all in the engineering, automotive and aerospace sectors - showed that major acquisitions generally led to reduced returns. In 70 per cent of cases where an acquisition amounting to at least 15 per cent of annual turnover was made, the company’s share price under-performed.
RSA grants help generate fresh investment
Nearly $2.25 billion in new business investment has been secured in the UK over the past year, the vast majority of it in the manufacturing sector, according to a new report from the DTI. The government’s programme of Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) grants has played a major role in attracting new investment: for every $1 invested through the programme, $6 was secured from the private sector.
The UK government, the Scottish executive and the Welsh Assembly between them committed to more than 500 RSA grants worth a total of $376 million over the year. This is expected to lever in just under $2.25 billion in private sector investment, creating more than 24,000 jobs and safeguarding 15,000 more. Since 1997, RSA grants worth $2.4 billion have been awarded, securing $24 billion in investment and securing 290,00 jobs.
The companies benefiting from RSA assistance in 2001/02 were, as usual, extremely varied. In North West England, for example, Esso Serve Europe, part of Exxon Mobil, was awarded $1 million to set up a multilingual European call centre in Salford, while Burton’s Foods Ltd, owned by private investment firm Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst, received nearly $3 million to expand its biscuit factory at Moreton on Merseyside.
Magna Kansei, a joint venture between Magna International of Canada and Kansei Calsonic of Japan, received $1.3 million to help kickstart an $8.7 million investment in a plant manufacturing injection moulded components for Nissan at Sunderland, North East England. Japanese-owned NSK Bearings was awarded $1.7 million towards the cost of a $15 million plant at nearby Peterlee. In the South East, Pfizer Ltd, the UK arm of US-based pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc, received a $7.5 million RSA grant to build and equip a new R&D facility at its base in Sandwich in Kent. The facility will create 400 jobs and is part of an overall investment package that involves $194 million from Pfizer.
Anglo-US team wins Nobel Prize for medicine
The Nobel Prize for Medicine has been awarded to two Britons and an American, the second year in a row this has happened. The 2002 award was made to Sir John Sulston and Sydney Brenner of the UK and Robert Horvitz of the US for their discovery of the genes that determine how living cells divide and die. Sir John and Professor Brenner carried out most of their work at the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, Eastern England - bringing the total number of Nobel prizes awarded for research done at the institution to 12. Sir John was subsequently director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and led Britain’s contribution to the human genome project, while Prof Brenner moved to California to found the Molecular Sciences Institute at Berkeley. Professor Horvitz is based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The three carried out long-term experiments on a tiny nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, though their findings have implications for the development of many human diseases, especially cancer. Professor Brenner began his work back in the 1960s and Sir John carried it on, identifying a process of ‘programmed cell death’ in the developing worm. Prof Horvitz identified the genetic programmes that controlled cell death, and subsequent research showed that most of these had counterparts in humans. Researchers are now working on programmed cell death in human beings, particularly in the field of cancer, where treatments are often based on stimulating cellular ‘suicide programmes’.
Merger plan to create London ‘super-university’
Two London colleges with international reputations for research - Imperial College and University College London - have announced outline plans for a merger that would create a huge new University of London to rival the Ivy League giants of the US. The new institution would have more than 6,000 faculty members, 25,000 students and an annual research income of $368 million, almost as much as the universities of Oxford and Cambridge combined. A managerial merger could be completed by next year, with full merger, if the plans are approved, following in 2004 or 2005.
Supporters of the move, including Sir Richard Sykes, rector of Imperial College and former chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, believe it would boost the competitiveness of British science and would allow the new institution to take on heavyweights such as Harvard. A merged UCL/Imperial would have 29 five-star rated department s, the highest possible classification. However, opponents fear that such a move would throw into doubt the future of the University of London, which acts as an umbrella institution for 18 colleges, many of which rank as leading universities in their own right.
One of the reasons behind the proposal is the government’s forthcoming white paper on university finance, which will increase funding for research but at the same time rationalise it. This means that University and Imperial are likely to find themselves competing for investment in central London facilities located just a couple of miles apart.
Greenspan pays tribute to London’s leading role
Alan Greenspan, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, officially opened the new HM Treasury Building in Westminster, central London on 25 September. His remarks included the following:
"Today’s remarkably sophisticated international financial system … took root several centuries ago within hailing distance of Her Majesty’s Treasury. The rule of law and protection of property rights attracted transactions to the London market and… the British tradition of trust, integrity and fair dealing has been an important component of the City’s success. London, and other British financial centres, had developed by World War I into the dominant lender to the world, accounting for half of the world’s trade financing and, despite its loss of empire, London remains, with New York, at the top of the world’s financial pyramid.
"The City has a long tradition of leading the world in foreign exchange trading and currently conducts twice the volume of New York, despite the fact that the US dollar is the leading traded currency by far in foreign exchange transactions. London is the world’s centre for over-the-counter derivatives trading - again with double the share of the trading in similar instruments conducted in New York. Moreover, a substantial share of the world’s securities trading is channelled through the City.
"London has stayed on top in the provision of financial services despite the emergence of the euro, which some expected would divert a significant share of foreign exchange trading to a single centre on the Continent. Although financial sector activity in Frankfurt has increased substantially in the past few years, largely reflecting the growing importance of the euro, trading volumes there are still well below those of London and New York."
The Treasury meanwhile has announced major reforms of investment fund regulations to help UK fund managers compete with rivals in European centres such as Luxembourg and Dublin. The UK industry, which manages $310 billion of funds in unit trusts and shares in open-ended investment companies (OEICs), will have greater freedom in selling such products to investors outside the UK.
The changes include relaxation of the requirement for overseas investors to declare that they are not ordinarily resident in the UK, allowing them to receive gross interest. The move will cost the Treasury little in real terms, as the fact that many investments are held by corporate nominees, such as banks, makes it difficult for the Inland Revenue to identify individual investors for tax purposes. Another change will exempt the holdings of overseas investors from inheritance tax, while a third extends a tax exemption introduced in 1997 that allows units trusts and OEICs to merge without paying stamp duty. City fund managers, who had campaigned for the changes, welcomed the Treasury move, saying it would have a significant effect on future sales.
London is tops for business…
For the 13th year running, London has been voted the top trading location for business in Europe, in the annual European Cities Monitor survey by real estate consultants Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker. The company polled the opinions of senior executives in more than 500 European companies. The UK capital came out top on seven of 12 different key criteria, including the availability of qualified staff which, for the first time, was seen as the single most important factor in deciding where to locate. It also scored highest on telecommunications, availability of office space, easy access to markets, external transport links, internal transport and the number of languages spoken.
London has increased its lead over Frankfurt as the perceived financial capital of Europe over the next five years and remains the focus of expansion plans for a high proportion of companies. On a less upbeat note, the survey found that almost half of all companies had revised their property strategies in the wake of September 11. European executives saw the performance of the US economy as the factor likely to have the greatest impact on business over the next 10 years.
Another survey, commissioned by London First Centre, reveals similar investor attitudes to the UK capital. The main factors influencing companies’ decisions to locate in London are its status as a global business city, its access to European markets, its proximity to client bases, good transport links and the English language. More than half the companies surveyed had used London as a springboard for expansion, both within the UK and beyond, and 56 per cent planned to expand their operations there over the coming three years.
… and tops for creativity
One in five new jobs in London is based in the creative industries, according to Creativity - London’s Core Business, a report commissioned by the Greater London Authority Economics Unit. The sector is the fastest-growing in the capital, with productivity outpacing even that of financial and business services.
The creative industries cover 13 sectors: advertising, architecture, arts and antiques, crafts, design, designer fashion, film and video, interactive leisure software, music, the performing arts, publishing, software and computer services, and television and radio. A total of 525,000 people work in these industries or in creative occupations in other industries, with 100,000 of those jobs being created over the past five years. The sector contributes $32 billion annually to London’s output, second only to business services, which generates $48 billion.
"This report shows in detail just how decisive for London’s economy the creative industries are," said London mayor Ken Livingstone. "London makes almost 30 per cent of the UK’s creative output and almost 30 per cent of its creative industry jobs. They are crucial not only in themselves but also in their close tie-in to London’s service and manufacturing sector in fields such as design, advertising and publishing. They add value across virtually all of London’s economy. … London offers a diverse, multilingual workforce, a wide range of services and a high-tech infrastructure that helps these industries survive."
Broadband subscribers pass million mark
The UK has reached a landmark in the take-up of broadband services, with more than one million businesses and consumers now signed up. The number of broadband subscribers has trebled since the beginning of 2002, an estimated 20,000 new users are being signed up each week, and around 63 per cent of the population now has access to broadband services, according to the DTI. UK online for business, a DTI partnership between the government and industry, has published a new broadband guide offering advice on how broadband can improve business performance. The government is also setting up a network of dedicated regional broadband advisers to boost availability and take-up around the country. More information can be found at: www.dti.gov.uk.
The government has lent its support to a new business initiative in the Manvers Enterprise Zone in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, where developer Broadband Office (UK) Ltd has recently completed its ‘Innovate Office’ development.
Innovate Workspace Campus, Manvers Enterprise Zone, Dearne Valley, Rotherham
Treasury minister and local MP John Healey formally launched the project in early October, praising the initiative and outlining how it could provide a blueprint for future business developments. The company now has plans for an ‘Innovate Workspace’ campus-style development on the site, bringing its total investment to $10.5 million and promising to create up to 500 jobs. The campus will consist of units ranging in size from 3,200 sq ft up to 78,000 sq ft, all wired for broadband internet and telecoms use. They will be suitable for a range of business uses, from R&D to light assembly and education.
Meanwhile, broadband roll-out has received a further boost with the launch of a new satellite-based service that will allow customers to access broadband services even if they are located in rural areas. Everywhere! Broadband, based in Leeds, Yorkshire and Humber, has signed a deal with Eutelsat, Europe’s largest satellite operator, to use its OpenSky technology to supply services to small businesses and consumers. Customers use dial-up access via their PC modem and a satellite dish, to receive services such as TV channels, education, video, music, games and business services. Delivery rates are said to be up to 1 megabit per second, comparing well with land-based ADSL and cable connections. Prices are expected to start at around $30 per month, plus a one-off $150 installation fee, and the service is expected to be in operation by the end of the year.
E-commerce changes the way business does business
In one example of the way e-commerce is transforming British business, the DTI has carried out a survey to investigate the impact of new technology on the UK packaging industry. The report shows a high level of take-up of basic e-commerce technologies among packaging manufacturers, with more than 75 per cent adopting technologies that are changing the way they do business. However, companies have been rather slower to adopt more sophisticated e-business practices.
Some 66 per cent of packaging producers have both e-mail and a website and 33 per cent allow customers to order online, with half planning to provide this option within the next two years. Packer and filler companies are in the vanguard of adoption, with 92 per cent of them having e-mail and 79 per cent a website. Retailers and wholesalers are somewhat less advanced, with 84 per cent using e-mail but only 53 per cent having a website.
The most common motivations for adopting e-commerce were to improve knowledge management and quality of service. Around 45 per cent of the more than 200 companies surveyed said that e-commerce had improved their service provision, while 25 per cent identified a positive impact on their levels of productivity.
Property choice widens as office supply grows
Office availability is on the rise again, with property firm Cluttons pointing to a ‘supply mountain’ in London and the South East. More than 9 million sq ft of space is currently available in the City of London, 1 million sq ft in Mayfair and nearly 10 million sq ft in the Western Corridor market. With 3 million sq ft of speculative space due to become available in the City over the next two years, total availability there could surpass the 1990 peak of nearly 13 million sq ft. In the West End of London, rentals are falling, says the firm, and are likely to fall further.
The temporary downturn has done little to stem the flow of new development schemes around the UK, either on the drawing board or nearing completion. In Bristol in South West England, for example, a new brownfield regeneration project is planned at Temple Quay 2, adjacent to the successful Temple Quay development site. The 18-acre project will include office, residential and retail premises, together with bars and restaurants. Office space will amount to some 655,000 sq ft, and work is due to begin in spring 2003.
In Preston, in the North West, Harris Knowledge Park, a $2.2 million incubator for start-up businesses, held its official opening at the end of September. The University of Central Lancashire began redevelopment of the 14-acre park in 1998, and the second phase has included the renovation of several properties and conversion of others to accommodate high-tech start-ups. The Northwest Development Agency has helped to fund the project with a grant of $930,000.
Development is also taking place at Wolverhampton Science Park in the West Midlands. The park is currently home to 56 businesses but is now full; a second phase of development due for completion by October 2003 will create space for a further 70 companies and will create up to 350 jobs. The park has close links with the Delta Research Park at Telford, with business clusters in the engineering and polymers industries and with numerous engineering and innovation centre projects sponsored by the University of Wolverhampton and the Wolverhampton-Telford Technology Corridor partnership.
Work has started on phase-three development of the Woodside Business Park at Birkenhead in North West England. The Mersey Dock & Harbour Co plans to create over 26,000 sq ft of office, industrial and workshop space at the waterfront site, with 26 units ready for occupation early in the new year.
In Scotland, Motorola’s relocation of its manufacturing operations to its plant at East Kilbride in Glasgow means that the 85-acre site of its former plant at Headrigg Road, South Queensferry, near Edinburgh, is now available for redevelopment. It is seeking offers for the freehold of the site, which it acquired in 1995. The site includes a 188,000 sq ft manufacturing facility, a separate building of 32,000 sq ft and 30 acres of land for development.
Network expansion for sea and rail freight services
The frequency of ferry services to Belfast, Northern Ireland from the new Twelve Quays terminal in Liverpool in North West England has increased, with operator NorseMerchant Ferries adding a third vessel to its fleet. The company is now offering two sailings daily on Sundays and Mondays and three on other days of the week. It is also operating a dedicated freight ferry on the route, which can carry up to 150 trailers and 12 drivers. The location of the new terminal has allowed NorseMerchant to cut an hour off the previous journey time to Belfast; it will shortly also transfer its Dublin services to Twelve Quays.
On the east coast, DFDS Tor Line has added a second ro-ro freight vessel to its service between Immingham and Cuxhaven in Germany. Sailings will be increased from three to five per week in each direction. Meanwhile, rail freight operator EWS is to expand its Enterprise network of services from the port of Tilbury in Essex, Eastern England. Specialist FAA-type container wagons will now run to freight terminals at Avonmouth, Daventry, Mossend, Newport, Wakefield and Widnes. Other new services are planned from ports to locations around the country in the coming months.
New measures to ensure fair deal for employees
The National Minimum Wage increased on 1 October from £4.10 to £4.20 an hour for workers aged 22 and over, while the ‘development rate’ for 18-21-year-olds went up from £3.50 to £3.60 an hour. The increase is expected to benefit some one million low-paid workers, 70 per cent of whom are women. Between September 2001 and October 2002, the rate has increased by 50p an hour, the equivalent of 13.5 per cent or an extra £1,040 ($1,560) a year before tax for a person working a 40-hour week. The increase for younger workers has been 40p an hour, equivalent to £830 ($1,245) a year.
At the same time, more than one million fixed-term employees have been given new rights to equal treatment on pay, pensions, holidays, sick pay and training. The new rights are aimed at stopping the practice of using successive fixed-term contracts in what are effectively permanent posts, although they do not apply to workers such as agency temps or apprentices. Fixed-term contracts are used in a wide variety of sectors, including education, health, transport, catering, banking, insurance, manufacturing and construction. "It is important that employers and employees are able to agree contracts that suit their circumstances and that fixed-term employees get a fair deal," said employment relations minister Alan Johnson.
Telford plays to its strengths in polymers
The Telford Development Agency has launched a new initiative aimed at attracting investors from the plastics, polymer and rubber industries. The M54 Polymer Valley ‘brand’ is a joint venture with Regional Development Agency (RDA) Advantage West Midlands and English Partnerships, and will promote the expertise to be found in the West Midlands town and along the M54 corridor to Wolverhampton.
There are currently nearly 100 polymer-related companies based in and around Telford, including plastics processors, packaging manufacturers, raw materials and equipment suppliers, mould and die manufacturers, machinists and service providers. There is also an extensive technical, research and training support network, including a polymer training centre at the Telford University campus and a Competitiveness Centre at the University of Wolverhampton.
Polymer Cluster at the Competitiveness Centre, University of Wolverhampton
Scotland maintains leading-edge appeal
Scotland has a world-class reputation as a centre for high-technology and leading-edge industries, and this month again has attracted a clutch of leading international investors. Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, for example, a unit of The Boeing Company based in St Louis, Missouri, has opened an office in the region’s second city, Glasgow. The office will support the UK Ministry of Defence’s Corporate Technical Services branch, providing technical updates and publications services, and will support the introduction of interactive electronic manuals to the Royal Air Force’s Chinook helicopter fleet.
Arius3D Europe, a subsidiary of Arius3D Inc of Canada, is to open a new digital imaging centre at Alva in Clackmannanshire. This follows the announcement in June this year of plans for a $10 million imaging centre in Dundee. The new facility will employ 30 people and will produce high-quality 3D digital images, using the latest scanning technology. With the National Museums of Scotland, the company is exploring the possibility of scanning some of Scotland’s most important historical treasures.
IBM has opened a second customer service centre at its Greenock campus. The centre will provide a single point of contact for all IT-related customer service problems, for clients across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region running both IBM and other business systems. Up to 80 jobs will be created by the end of the year, with potential for further expansion. Ventis, a customer relationship management and e-business consulting service from the Republic of Ireland, has opened a new office in Kinross. The office will spearhead the company’s expansion into the UK market, and it has already signed up a number of new clients in the region.
On a more traditional note, United Glass, the UK operating division of Toledo, Ohio-based Owens Illinois, is to invest around $36 million in its plant in Alloa over the next three years. The plant has a heritage dating back to 1750 and has long been Alloa’s leading private employer. It makes bottles for the distilled spirits, beers and beverages industries and currently employs 450 people.
Around the regions
The new National Metals Technology Centre (NAMTEC) in Rotherham, South Yorkshire has been officially launched, with industry minister Alan Johnson pledging $30 million of government investment. The centre brings together expertise from the DTI, development agencies, industry and the academic community, and is intended to function as a ‘one-stop shop’ in providing support and advice to companies across the UK in the metals sector. South Yorkshire is a traditional base of the metals industry and it is hoped that NAMTEC will help to regenerate metals research and advanced engineering technology in the region.
F5 Networks Inc of Seattle, which specialises in internet traffic management (ITM) products, has opened a network support centre at its European headquarters in Egham, Surrey in South East England. The centre will be staffed by multilingual engineers, consultants and training personnel and will support the company’s partners in a number of European countries.
XML Global Technologies, a New York-based developer of XML middleware for web-page programming, has opened a new European sales office in Maidenhead, South East England. The office will work with XML Global’s European partners to expand its presence in the market, and will target companies in specific sectors such as financial services, manufacturing, automotive and healthcare.
Handango, a publisher of mobile software based in Hurst, Texas, has opened a European office in London. The company’s application management and provisioning platform, Handango AMPP, is a carrier-class software solution that is used by more than 100 companies - including, Sony, Microsoft, Palm, Nokia, Handspring and Sharp - as their mobile software delivery platform.
HeyAnita, a Los Angeles-based voice software company, has started up a European operation in Kingsclere, Hampshire, in South East England. The company supplies interactive voice solutions to telecoms service providers and enterprise customers, providing standards-based technology via application service providers and software licensing models.
Irish technology marketing company Technology Sales Leads (TSL) has opened a call centre in Reading, South East England. The company, which provides sales outsourcing solutions to technology companies, opened a sales office in London last year. TSL uses specialist data acquisition and proprietary information sources to identify sales opportunities worldwide. It expects to increase its UK workforce by 400 per cent within the next year.
Danish-based microelectronics technology company Delta is to open a silicon chip design facility at the Tredomen Business and Technology Centre at Ystrad Mynach in Wales. The company will custom-design semiconductors for a variety of businesses, and will also provide a full range of other services, including testing and failure analysis. It is Delta’s first investment outside Scandinavia and the first commercial custom-design house for silicon chips to be located in Wales.
Automated Financial Systems Inc, a lending and treasury management firm based in Exton, Pennsylvania, has opened a European headquarters in Cambridge, Eastern England. The company has developed an end-to-end automated loan accounting system capable of processing any type of loan, including consumer, small business, commercial and specialised assets.
Optims SA of France, which supplies revenue management systems and IT enabling systems to the hospitality, tourism and transport industries, has set up a UK subsidiary in Chertsey, Surrey in South East England. Optims UK will focus initially on revenue management solutions, with reservation and central reservation systems being added in due course. The company say it sees its UK base as a "natural gateway" to the US.
Isolagen Inc, a biotechnology company based in Houston, Texas, has opened a cellular laboratory in London to develop its work in hard and soft tissue regeneration and other therapies. The company specialises in an autologous cellular system (ACS) process, whereby a patient’s cells are extracted, reproduced and then reintroduced for specific medical or cosmetic applications. Among other applications, the process is said to combat the visual signs of ageing.
BP Solar is incorporating the UK’s biggest solar installation into the new $52 million headquarters being built for energy company TXU-Europe in the Ipswich Village redevelopment area in Ipswich, Eastern England. The 200kW installation contains 87,000 photovoltaic cells housed in glass panels, which at peak performance will provide 10 per cent of the building’s power requirements. TXU-Europe is the UK’s largest domestic electricity supplier. All 1,000 of its staff, currently based at five locations around Ipswich, will be transferred to the new building once it is completed.
Borders (UK), the London-based subsidiary of Borders Group Inc of Ann Arbor, Michigan, is to open three further Borders Books & Music Café superstores in 2003. The new stores will be located in Liverpool, North West England, Beckton in east London and Swansea in South Wales. They are in addition to a new outlet already announced for Bristol, South West England, and will bring the company’s UK store network to 21, with further expansion plans in the pipeline.
The East Midlands Development Agency (emda) is hoping to attract Indian investors with its latest overseas marketing initiative. The RDA has appointed Deloitte Touch Tohmatsu India, based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), as its agent in targeting five major economic centres across the sub-continent. More than 60 per cent of Indian overseas investment comes to the UK and, in particular, emda is hoping to attract companies in sectors such as high-value engineering, healthcare, IT, education and environmental and food technologies. It has appointed another consultancy, Singapore-based Neville Clarke, to target investors in Malaysia and China, and has also recently set up new US offices in Boston and San Jose.
Yorkshire Forward, the RDA for Yorkshire and Humber, has launched a new website aimed at persuading the 40,000 graduates produced each year by the region’s nine universities to stay and work there. At present the region has the lowest graduate retention rate in the UK, but the agency is pinning its hopes on the fact that more than 70 per cent of graduates search for jobs on the internet. The site - www.mad2move.com - will feature profiles of the region’s top 600 companies and an up-to-date database of the jobs available, together with advice on job-hunting, networking and preparing a CV.