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Automotive and engineering
industries surge ahead
Car production by UK-based automotive companies is at levels not seen
since the heyday of the 1970s. Car-makers from Germany, France and Japan
have boosted their production in the UK, due to good industrial relations,
worker flexibility and the international nature of the industry. According
to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, UK plants built 1.65
million cars in 2003 and this is predicted to grow to 1.7 million this
year. Some 1.2 million of these will be for export. Figures from the
Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that in the three months to July
2004 total car production, seasonally adjusted, rose by 3.2 per cent
compared with the previous three months, and by 2.1 per cent year-on-year.
Export production increased by 7 per cent, while production for the home
market rose by 2.4 per cent. Production of commercial vehicles rose by 0.2
from the previous three months, and by 8.9 per cent compared with the same
period a year earlier.
The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), the world’s largest and most
prestigious organisation for the transport professions, has opened a new
UK branch. It was launched during the SAE’s Global Performance Conference
at Felindre in Wales, against the backdrop of the Wales Rally GB. The 2005
conference will also be held in Wales during rally week, signalling a new
partnership between the SAE, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Welsh
Development Agency (WDA), which puts Wales firmly at the heart of the UK’s
automotive industry. The partnership is an important element of the Wales
Motorsport Initiative, a strategy aimed at maximising the benefits of
hosting the international rally and developing the high-performance
engineering and motorsport sectors in the principality. The Welsh
automotive sector encompasses 350 companies, which employ 30,000 people
and generate $4.5 billion in sales annually.
Group Lotus is looking to recruit over 100 new staff for its manufacturing
facility at Hethel in Norfolk, Eastern England, as it increases production
of its high-performance Elise model from 97 to 120 units a week. The
expanded capacity will largely be filled by production of the
American-specified Elise, which has enjoyed strong demand during its first
year on sale in the US.
For engineering companies generally, prospects for growth are at their
strongest for nine years, according to a survey by the Engineering
Employers’ Federation (EEF). More businesses plan to take on staff and
invest in plant and equipment, even though strong global competition
continues to squeeze profit margins. The quarterly survey, conducted in
August, quizzed 1,201 companies, and found that order intake during the
previous quarter was at its highest since 1996, while output continued to
rise. Service sector companies, however, were much less optimistic, with
confidence affected by rising oil prices and a slowdown in consumer
spending linked to higher interest rates.
Engineering, including automotive and computer production, accounts for
roughly half the UK’s manufacturing output. The EEF expects output in the
sector to rise by 2.9 per cent this year and by 4.2 per cent in 2005. It
highlights the marine industry as one of the healthiest sectors,
particularly in the South West, which is the main base of the UK’s leisure
marine industry. Value-added output in the region is estimated at $1.8
billion this year, up 9 per cent from two years ago, and business has
grown for a whole range of companies, from those producing specialised
marine components to large firms building luxury yachts.
Ford unveils restructuring plan
for Jaguar
Luxury performance car-maker Jaguar, owned by Ford and one of the UK’s most
famous marques, has announced a far-reaching business reorganisation plan to
stem losses, caused largely by the weakness of the US dollar against sterling.
This has seen demand for its top-of-the-range exports fall in the US, which
accounts for around 50 per cent of its market. In addition, it has been hit by a
shift in consumer demand from premium cars to SUVs.
In response, Ford is to end car production at the historic Browns Lane factory
in Coventry in the West Midlands, consolidating the assembly of Jaguar models at
the nearby Castle Bromwich plant and transferring 425 workers there. There will
be 400 voluntary redundancies, but Jaguar will retain its head office at Browns
Lane and will continue to make wood finishes for its cars there. Another 750
jobs will be lost across the group as part of the radical overhaul, and Ford has
also put the Jaguar Formula One racing team up for sale, in order to focus on
its core business.
However, the company’s restructuring plans also include a number of new models.
A new all-aluminium XK sports car, codenamed the X150, will go sale early in
2006 and the XJ luxury diesel saloon range will be strengthened by the
introduction of a new engine. Both these models will be produced at the Castle
Bromwich facility. In addition, a new high-performance diesel version of the
X-Type compact luxury car will be introduced, along with an X-type estate
(station wagon) version to be launched in the US.
UK maintains lead
in renewable energy
British engineers have succeeded for the first time in supplying electricity
generated from wave power to the national grid. A machine operating a mile off
the coast of Orkney, in the far north of Scotland, has been producing 750 Kw of
electricity, enough to power 500 households. The Pelamis, or ‘red snake’,
machine is one of a number of prototypes built by Ocean Power Delivery of
Edinburgh, and works by using the sea’s vertical rise and fall to create changes
in pressure. Industry experts predict it will be a decade before a significant
number of wave-power devices are in operation around UK coasts, but the
technology has huge potential and it is an area in which the country is a world
leader.
Four organisations have joined forces to drive the development of wave and tidal
renewable energy, in response to a $90 million marine development fund launched
by the government. The University of Edinburgh, Robert Gordon University in
Aberdeen, the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney and the New and
Renewable Energy Centre in Northumberland have formed the UK Centre for Marine
Renewable Energy. Together they will provide a coherent and sustainable approach
to the emerging industry and a properly equipped base for research, development,
testing and certification.
Regional agency Renewables Northwest organised major events for both the wind
energy and coastal power sectors during September, as well as reprinting its
supply chain directory, which lists 160 companies in four languages. The North
West is one of the UK’s designated areas for wind energy development, with nine
of the 17 planned Round 1 wind farms to be built off its coast. The east coast
is another centre for the industry, and a wind farm at Scroby Sands, off the
Norfolk coast, has already begun generating electricity. The farm, developed by
E.ON UK (the company that runs Powergen), will be capable of producing enough
power to supply 41,000 homes and will save the emission of 75,000 tonnes of
carbon dioxide a year. Construction has also begun of a wind turbine at Ness
Point off the Suffolk coast near Lowestoft. The turbine will stand 413ft high at
the tip of the blade and, when it is completed at the end of the year, will be
able to produce 2.75 MW of energy, enough to supply 1,530 homes. It will also
provide a striking new landmark at Britain’s most easterly point.
Wind farm, Scroby Sands,
off the Norfolk coast
The UK remains the most attractive market
in the world for wind power investment, according to the latest Ernst & Young
Renewable Energy Attractiveness Index. Spain holds the top spot overall for
renewable energy, with its sunny climate providing potential for exploiting
solar energy and biomass fuels. The government has set a target of producing 10
per cent of the UK’s electricity from renewable sources by 2010, and in
September announced new measures to support the sector. Its Renewables
Obligation Order 2005 extended its commitment to renewables to 2015/16,
introduced enhanced funding measures for power generating companies and
introduced greater flexibility for small generators.
New support for
nanotechnology initiatives
Twenty-five nanotechnology projects around the UK have been boosted by a total
of $27 million in government funding, awarded by the Department of Trade and
Industry (DTI) and covering a maximum of 50 per cent of each project’s value.
Projects range from anti-corrosion coatings and electronics to water
purification and printing. In addition INEX, a microsystems and nanotechnology
facility for industry based at the University of Newcastle in North East
England, will receive $5.4 million. The grants are the first to be made under
the government’s $162 million micro- and nanotechnology initiative, which
supports applied research programmes and the creation of new nanotechnology
facilities. The government also supported a sizeable British delegation to
Nanofair 2004, the leading showcase for the industry, which was held in
Switzerland in September.
It is estimated that the global market for nanotechnology could be worth $1
trillion within the next decade, and the UK is determined to be a significant
player in its development. It already has significant experience in areas such
as electronics, drug delivery systems, tissue engineering and instrumentation.
One leading company is Trikon Technologies Ltd, based in Newport, South Wales,
which manufactures equipment for the global semiconductor industry. Trikon,
which employs 210 people, is currently engaged in a project to develop
manufacturing equipment for non-volatile memory chips for computers. These will
store memory even when the machine is switched off, avoiding the need for PCs to
boot up afresh every time the power is switched on. The project is being backed
by the Welsh Assembly and the WDA.
Trikon Technologies Ltd,
Newport, South Wales, manufactures
equipment for the global semiconductor industry
Business services
claim dominant share of economy
Business and financial services accounted for more than 30 per cent of the UK’s
total economic output for the first time in 2002, according to a report from the
ONS. The share claimed by manufacturing was 15.9 per cent, while the creative
sector contributed 8.7 per cent. The total output of the whole economy, as
measured by gross value added (GVA), was $1.67 trillion, 5.1 per cent higher
than in 2001. Of this, business and financial services contributed $508.3
billion, said the report, United Kingdom Input-Output Analyses 2004. The
analyses track economic trends back to 1992, and show that within that time the
fastest-growing industry was computer and related services, which now accounts
for 6.7 per cent of the total economy. Cultural changes in food consumption have
put the hotels, catering and pubs industry among the top ten sectors for output
growth, along with recreational and sporting activities, owning and dealing in
real estate, market research and legal activities . Overall, GVA grew by 69.6
over the decade.
GVA for the creative sector was up 93.2 per cent in that time. Computer games
companies in the North East are currently attempting to boost their share of the
$20 billion global games market by forging links with their Korean counterparts.
Thirteen firms from the region met with South Korean firms, along with the
country’s trade association and Korean journalists, at an event in London in
September. The UK has the biggest games market in Europe, valued at $3.6 billion
annually, and the North East has a strong network of companies active in the
sector. They are particularly keen to tap into the lucrative Korean market, the
strengths of which include internet, mobile phone and interactive TV games
development.
In the business sector, international outsourced records and management services
company Iron Mountain UK, a subsidiary of Iron Mountain Inc of Boston, has
opened its UK financial HQ in Livingston in Scotland. The new centre will employ
55 people and will handle invoicing and ledgers for the company’s UK operation,
which last year generated $238 million in revenue. In total, Iron Mountain now
employs 320 people in Scotland. The company was assisted in setting up its new
facility by a $378,000 Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) grant from the
Scottish parliament.
Broadband usage continues on upward trend
Broadband usage by
domestic consumers continues to grow, with 41 per cent of the UK’s internet
users now using high-speed services compared with 27 per cent six months ago,
according to new research from NOP. Around 12 per cent of users changed their
ISP in the past six months and 14 per cent are expecting to do so in the next
six months, principally because they want to switch to broadband. The number of
households switching is about 40,000 a week. There are now a total of 26.8
million internet users in the UK (including both broadband and dial-up), which
represents 58 per cent of the population. The number of women using the internet
has grown, with female users accounting for 48 per cent of the online population
compared with 46 per cent at the beginning of the year. Factors driving the
increase in broadband usage include falling prices of PCs and the increasing
popularity of digital photography, with consumers downloading and sending images
to friends and family.
In the business arena, pan-European business telecommunications company COLT
reports that more than 100 companies, including conferencing specialist Genesys,
have signed up for its International Intelligent Network (IIN) service in just
two years. The service allows companies to offer cost-effective telephone
contact services in different European countries, without having to set up local
offices or negotiate with local telecoms providers. Businesses can provide
customers across Europe with non-geographic, special-rate numbers to fit with
any marketing campaign or service, and then have calls directed to their own
offices or call centres via COLT’s network.
Analysys Ltd, based in Cambridge, Eastern England and one of the world’s leading
telecommunications strategy consulting firms, has been bought by Datatec
International, the global arm of Datatec, a South Africa-based networking and IT
services company, for $5 million. Analysys has a global client base that
includes regulators, governments, network operators, equipment manufacturers and
financial institutions, and has seven offices in the UK, Europe and the US.
Datatec will incorporate it into a new company that includes Mason, its existing
telecoms consultancy. The new company will be called Analysys Mason Group (AMG),
and AMG will become the company’s umbrella brand for consultancy.
R&D spending aims to encourage innovation
R&D spending in the
service sector increased by 16 per cent in 2002, four times more than in the
manufacturing sector, according to the ONS. However, the UK’s overall R&D spend
as a total of GDP stayed stable and below the level of the UK’s main
competitors, suggesting that government tax breaks for R&D have yet to have a
large impact. Manufacturing still accounts for the greatest proportion of R&D
spending, with 77 per cent of the total in 2002. However, service sector
spending grew by $657 million to $4.8 billion, mirroring the upturn in the
sector seen recently in the US. There, productivity in the service sector has
grown rapidly since the late 1990s, with companies such as Wal-Mart capitalising
on cheaper IT to boost logistics and distribution processes.
In total, the UK spends 1.85 per cent of its GDP on research, compared with 2.7
per cent in the US, 2.5 per cent in Germany and 2.2 per cent in France. The
government is keen to boost this figure, especially in the fields of science and
engineering. It has increased its funding to science by 5.8 per cent in real
terms this year, and will invest an extra $1.8 billion over the next three
years, bringing its total investment in the science base to $9.5 billion by
2007/8. Science minister Lord Sainsbury has called on the private sector to
match government funding, to help take R&D spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by
2014.
A number of new initiatives centred on institutes of higher education have been
launched around the country. In Northern Ireland, for example, nine projects at
Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster are to receive $1.8
million in funding from the Proof of Concept fund, an Invest Northern Ireland
programme that encourages high-tech business spin-outs from university research.
The projects include one at Queen’s University which will investigate the use of
biosensor technology in the analysis of toxic food contaminants, and one at the
University of Ulster that is working to develop mechanisms to monitor and manage
deposits of hazardous waste.
In Omagh and Londonderry, a new initiative has been launched to help local
people acquire work-based software development skills. The Virtual Software
Company, based at the Omagh Enterprise Company and the North West Institute of
Further and Higher Education, will provide cutting-edge ICT equipment and
facilities. Trainees will receive work placement experience with leading local
ICT companies. In Wales, the WDA has secured $6 million in European funding to
support the ongoing Centres of Excellence for Technology and Industrial
Collaboration (CETIC) programme over the next three years. CETIC, introduced in
2001, gives companies in Wales access to the facilities and expertise of local
universities. In Yorkshire and Humber, RDA Yorkshire Forward has launched the
Food Chain Centre of Industrial Collaboration (CIC), a body that aims to provide
high-level scientific support to food companies in the manufacture of their
products.
The School of Computing at the University of Teesside in North East England has
signed a collaborative agreement with the Multi-Media Centre at the University
of Shanghai in China. The agreement establishes a number of initiatives,
including joint scientific research, vocational training and the exchange of
students and academic staff. In the South West, research by local institutions
will be publicised by a $288,000 project funded by the South West Regional
Development Agency. Fifteen short films of broadcast news standard will be made
over the next year by Research-TV, highlighting work at 15 different
institutions. These will be released to news organisations worldwide via the
Reuters news agency. The first two films have already been made, one
highlighting the work of earthquake engineers at the University of Bristol, the
other focusing on research into diabetes and obesity in children carried out at
the University of the West of England.
Higher education in the UK has expanded rapidly in recent years, but the country
still has one of the highest degree ‘premiums’ in Europe. Graduates command
salaries that are on average 59 per cent greater than those of workers without
degrees, according to the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development.
Commercial rentals show
tentative signs of growth
Rents in the commercial
property sector are on the rise again after a long period of stagnation, as
improved economic sentiment filters through to the market. Consultant Cushman &
Wakefield Healey & Baker predicts that rentals will rise in most sectors by
around 1.7 per cent this year and by 2.7 per cent in 2005, the first real
increases since 2000. The market is still patchy, with office rentals in some
parts of London, such as the City and West End, beginning to rise, although
overall the trend is still downwards. The highest demand recently has been seen
in the retail sector, while industrial rents remain relatively flat. Regionally,
over the last quarter rents have continued to fall in Scotland and in the South
East, but C&W/H&B notes a revival of demand in the previously moribund Thames
Valley.
One property-based company with big ambitions is Evans Easyspace, which lets
small offices, workshops and fully serviced offices to small and medium-sized
companies on flexible terms and provides a range of additional business
services. The company, part of the Leeds-based Evans Property Group, has bought
the Scottish Software Centre in Livingston and a 2.7-acre site at the Orion
Business Park in North Tyneside, as the first steps in a $180 million strategy
that will see it triple in size over the next five years. It is also planning to
buy several other properties in Eastern England and the North, in a bid to
increase its 25 UK sites to between 50 and 60 over the next few years.
One of these sites is at Newton Aycliffe in County Durham, North East England,
where a $6.5 million industrial and warehouse development has recently been
completed at Aycliffe Industrial Park. The Maple Way development comprises
70,000 sq ft of high-specification industrial space in nine units, ranging in
size from 5,000 sq ft up to 20,000 sq ft and located in a landscaped
environment. The scheme has the potential to create 250 new jobs. In Yorkshire
and Humber, construction work is under way on ten self-contained workshop units
at the Wharncliffe Business Park in Carlton, Barnsley. The units, at Woodmoor
Court, range from 750 sq ft to 1,500 sq ft and are available to let on flexible
terms. The Carlton Industrial Estate is one of the longest established
industrial locations in the area and has good links to the national motorway
network.
Wharncliffe Business Park,
Carlton, Barnsley
Chemical companies
announce major investments
Nippon Gohsei, Japan’s
oldest public chemicals company, has opened a $116 million plant in Hull, on
Humberside, Yorkshire and Humber. The plant will be the company’s biggest
single-line facility anywhere in the world, and will produce 15,000 tonnes a
year of Soarnol, an environmentally friendly ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer,
which is used as a gas and moisture barrier in multi-layer plastics, mainly by
the food packaging industry. The facility, which employs 70 people, will export
90 per cent of its production to continental Europe.
Further up the coast in North East England, the DTI has offered US-based
Huntsman Petrochemicals a $30 million RSA grant towards a $369 million
investment project that will see the company build a new plant for the
production of low-density polyethylene (LDPE). The plant at Wilton will be the
largest LDPE facility in the world and will turn out 400,000 tonnes a year of
the material, which is used in packaging applications, when it goes on-stream in
the third quarter of 2007. The new facility will create 117 new jobs, and
Huntsman will also safeguard a further 747 jobs as it upgrades two existing
aromatics plants at Wilton and North Tees. Worldwide, the company has a
workforce of 15,000 people in 30 countries, and in 2003 generated revenues of
more than $16 billion. It is the world’s largest privately-owned chemicals
company and is involved in a variety of industries, including plastics,
automotive, agriculture, healthcare, textiles and packaging.
Speciality chemical company Octel, based in
Newark, Delaware has acquired Aroma & Fine Chemicals, based in Widnes, North
West England, for approximately $38 million. AFC manufactures aroma chemicals,
which are used largely for household, industrial and personal care applications.
Octel is a global chemical company that specialises in high-performance fuel
additives and special and effect chemicals.
New commitments from
pharma and bio investors
The Department for
Transport looks set to break with its current policy and introduce a national
government-led strategy for planning decisions on new port developments, which
are currently handled on a case-by-case basis. This comes at a time when
container traffic across Europe is forecast to grow by 8 per cent this year, but
volumes at key ports in the UK have been falling due to capacity constraints. It
is generally agreed that the UK requires more port capacity, but the question of
where to build has often been hampered by environmental issues. No new national
strategy is likely to be introduced before autumn next year, however, and
decisions on proposed new container ports at London Gateway on the Thames,
Bathside Bay near Harwich in Essex, and Felixstowe in Suffolk will be made under
the existing system.
The operator of Britain’s first toll motorway, the M6 Toll, which runs for 27
miles in the West Midlands, has given into pressure from hauliers and business
organisations and cut its toll charge for trucks from $18 to $11 until the end
of the year. Midland Expressway, a subsidiary of Macquarie Infrastructure of
Australia, made the move after haulage companies boycotted the road in protest
at what they claimed were unreasonably high tolls. However, the company has gone
ahead with plans to raise the toll for passenger cars from $3.60 to $5.40.
Ryanair, the low-cost airline headquartered in Dublin in the Republic of
Ireland, is to invest $240 million to expand its UK base at Luton Airport, in
eastern England. The company plans to purchase four new aircraft and to serve
nine new European destinations from Luton. It says the expansion will create up
to 1,000 new jobs in the Luton area.
Around the Regions
New regulations come into
force on 8 October that create a legal framework for a new form of company, the
European Company or Societas Europaea (SE). SEs will be public limited liability
companies registered in one of the member states of the European Union, with a
minimum share capital of $144,000 and a distinct legal personality. They will be
available to commercial bodies with operations in more than one member state,
though their use will be entirely voluntary. Forming such an entity may offer
advantages for UK-based companies wishing to operate in several EU states
simultaneously, or those engaged in restructuring companies, for example during
takeovers or the formation of joint ventures.
The UK has more ‘A-list’ companies than any other country in the world, apart
from the United States, according to a survey published by Forbes magazine. The
study, based on sales and earnings growth, share price movements and analysts’
expectations, put 32 UK firms among the 400 best performers in the world. It
also included 142 US firms, just two fewer than from the whole of Europe.
Thirty-one of the firms – including the Royal Bank of Scotland – have featured
every year since the list was first published six years ago.
E-learning and knowledge-sharing company OutStart, based in Boston,
Massachusetts, has opened an EMEA headquarters in London. The company supplies
products to organisations in a wide range of sectors, including banking,
telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, aviation and government.
Video compression specialist Modulus Video, based in Sunnyvale, California, has
opened an office in Newbury, South East England. The company will supply its
MPEG-5 AVC encoding and decoding systems for standard and high-definition
television throughout the EMEA region. Another Sunnyvale company, MontaVista
Software, Inc, has opened an office in nearby Bracknell. The office will support
the company’s full range of offerings, including its Linux products, and will
offer technical support and seminars for local customers.
US-based Openwave Systems Inc, a leading provider of open software products and
service for the communications industry, has completed its acquisition of UK
firm Magic4, a leading provider of messaging software for mass-market mobile
phones, at an approximate cost of $82.6 million. OpenWave will integrate Magic4
into its client software operation, making the combined entity the number one
provider of open standards-based client software for the mass market. With its
European headquarters in Hemel Hempstead, Eastern England, the acquisition will
reinforce OpenWave’s market presence in Europe and the Americas, complementing
its established base in Japan and Korea and extending its reach into China, via
Hong Kong.
The CMI partnership between Cambridge University and the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology (MIT) has produced its first spin-out company. Praxis, the UK’s
first national training programme aimed at technology transfer professionals,
has been incorporated as a limited company and has moved to the St John’s
Innovation Centre in Cambridge, Eastern England. Renamed Praxis Courses Ltd, the
company was set up in 2002 and has since expanded significantly. It now offers a
wide range of courses and is adding new ones such as ‘Research Contracts’, aimed
at professionals managing intellectual property issues associated with
university research projects sponsored by industry.
US-based Continental Airlines, the world’s sixth-largest airline and OAG Airline
of the Year 2004, is to launch daily non-stop flights from Bristol International
Airport to New York/Newark in May 2005. This will be the first scheduled
non-stop transatlantic service from South West England. Bristol is the largest
city in the South West, home to the national headquarters of more than 160
companies and a major sector for the financial services sector, which employs
around 40,000 people there. Bristol International is one of the fastest-growing
regional airports in the UK, serving over 90 direct destinations and with
passenger numbers predicted to reach 4.5 million in 2005, double the number in
2000. Continental will operate a 172-seat Boeing 757 aircraft on the route.
ABP Connect has begun work on a $1.8 million expansion programme at its Hams
Hall Railfreight Terminal in the West Midlands. The project involves the
construction of 127,000 sq ft of extra storage space for containers, boosting
the terminal’s capacity by 750 TEUs to 2,550 TEUs, and a new office block.
Throughput at Hams Hall was 42,000 containers in 2003, but increasing demand is
expected to swell this figure to 68,000 in 2004.
The Italian-based Sofidel Group, one of the fastest-growing paper manufacturing
companies in Europe, is investing $126 million to build Europe’s most modern
fully integrated paper mill and conversion plant at Baglan Energy Park, near
Port Talbot in South Wales. The 800,000 sq ft plant, which will create up to 300
permanent jobs as well as 500 construction jobs, is believed to be the largest
ever investment in the paper industry on a single site in the UK. Trading under
the name Intertissue, it will produce up to 600 million rolls of household
tissue a year when in full production. The 82-acre site has the capacity for
future expansion that could double the size of the plant. The investment was
supported by the Welsh Assembly with an RSA grant of $14.4 million.
Jacobs Engineering, of Pasadena, California, has acquired the Babtie Group,
based in Glasgow, Scotland, for an undisclosed fee. Babtie is a technical and
management consultancy company, operating both in the UK and internationally in
the infrastructure, buildings, environmental, defence, energy and government
outsourcing markets. It employs 3,500 people in the UK and five other countries.
Jacobs provides technical, professional and construction services around the
world; it has 35,000 employees and annual revenues approaching $5 billion.
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