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New session of Parliament
to debate business reform
The Queen’s Speech,
delivered on 17 May and outlining the legislative plans of the newly
re-elected Labour government for the next parliamentary session, contained
a total of 45 bills. Among the legislation that promises to have an impact
on business were bills proposing reform of the regulatory system,
including reforms to the Company Law Bill that will make it easier to set
up and run a company and which will reduce the regulatory burden on small
businesses. Also before the House are changes to state and private
pensions, following the report of the Pensions Commission, and new rights
to flexible working hours for parents, with paid maternity leave to be
extended from 26 weeks to 39 weeks from 2007, and a proportion of payments
to be transferable between parents.
Other changes to company law will see incompetent auditors threatened with
jail, while there will be tougher penalties for employers who take on
illegal workers. The government will look at the area of consumer credit,
with the intention of making loan agreements clearer and cracking down on
unscrupulous lenders. Incapacity benefit will be reformed, with the aim of
reducing the number of claimants. Also up for debate will be the
controversial identity cards bill, which was held over from the last
session of Parliament.
Working hours
opt-out under threat from European vote
At the European Parliament in Brussels, meanwhile, MEPs voted on 11 May to
end the UK’s right to opt out of Europe-wide limits restricting the
average working week to 48 hours. The decision was made despite the
importance placed by business leaders and by Prime Minister Tony Blair on
the right of workers to opt out of the clause if they chose to do so. The
European vote also backed measures to make time spent on standby count
towards working hours, even if employees are not active – for example,
doctors who are on call but able to sleep. Mr Blair now faces a battle at
the European ministerial level to overturn the decision and preserve
Britain’s flexible labour market, seen as one of its key strengths in
attracting overseas investment. The UK will need to win the backing of up
to 10 other countries at the Council of Ministers to block the reform.
Part of the rationale of the working time directive was to stop employers
forcing their employees to work long hours. Among the 15 longest-standing
European Union member states, the UK has the second highest proportion of
men working more than 48 hours a week, at 32 per cent of the workforce.
However, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and
Development, more than 75 per cent of workers working longer hours do so
through their own choice, attracted by the opportunity to earn extra pay
by doing overtime. In addition, fewer than 33 per cent of UK workers sign
a working time opt-out agreement at the same time as signing their
employment contracts.
Some organisations condemned the vote – the British Chambers of Commerce,
for instance, said it was a “blow for business and for Europe’s future
prosperity. It flies in the face of the EU’s decision to focus on growth
and jobs.” Sir Digby Jones, director-general of employers’ organisation
the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said that employers should
work to root out ‘isolated’ instances of abuse under the current system,
rather than having the opt-out scrapped altogether. Unions, however,
welcomed the move, with Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades
Union Congress, saying, “This is a victory for a common-sense compromise
on the 48-hour working week.”
The debate highlights the UK’s greater economic liberalism compared with
other countries within the EU. Supporters of the opt-out point to
countries such as France and Germany, which have adopted social models
that ostensibly give workers more rights but which are also believed to
have contributed to rising levels of unemployment.
Integrated
department takes control of tax and customs
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the new government department responsible for
the business of the formerly separate Inland Revenue and HM Customs and
Excise, has launched its new website, at www.hmrc.gov.uk. Chancellor
Gordon Brown announced the integration of the two organisations in his
2004 Budget. It is hoped that, as a single department, HMRC will be more
efficient and customer-focused. Business groups are hoping that the
creation of a unified department will help to simplify the tax system for
small businesses.
HMRC is responsible for collecting the bulk of tax revenues. Among its
responsibilities are income, corporation, capital gains, inheritance,
insurance premium, stamp duty, land and petroleum revenue taxes;
environmental taxes, such as climate change, the aggregates levy and
landfill tax; VAT; customs duty and frontier protection; excise duties;
National Insurance; road user charging; tax credits and child benefit;
enforcement of the minimum wage; and recovery of student loan payments. An
independent prosecutions office, the Revenue and Customs Prosecution
Office (RCPO), has been established to prosecute HMRC’s criminal cases.
Hiring on
the increase as City predicts business upturn
Chief executives in the City of London are markedly more confident about
the climate for mergers and acquisitions (M&As), but actual expenditure on
completed overseas acquisitions in the first quarter of 2005 fell, from $6
billion in the final three months of 2004 to $5.8 billion, according to
the Office for National Statistics (ONS). One of the biggest deals to go
through was WPP Group’s takeover of its US marketing rival Grey Global for
$1.4 billion. Acquisitions by foreign companies in the UK also declined
over the quarter, from $22.5 billion to $19 billion. There were 39
acquisitions of UK firms by foreign companies, with one – the $4.2 billion
paid by Cemex of Mexico for rival cement group RMC – accounting for 22 per
cent of the total value. Expenditure by UK companies on other UK companies
was also down, from $9.7 billion to $6.2 billion. The biggest of the 141
domestic deals done in the first quarter of 2005 was the $1.8 billion paid
by builder’s merchant Travis Perkins for its rival Wickes.
Activity in the financial sector continues to grow, however, and a number
of deals in progress are expected to boost M&A activity in the second
quarter of the year. Global revenue from investment banking was up 14 per
cent last year, amounting to $85 billion. About half of all European
activity took place in London, and the city accounted for a quarter of all
European investment banking revenue. London was also the top European
location for hedge funds, with $351.5 billion in assets under management
at the end of 2004 – a 60 per cent increase from the previous year, and 75
per cent of the European total.
According to a survey by recruitment consultancy Morgan McKinley, 64 per
cent of City financial firms are planning to hire up to 20 per cent more
staff over the remainder of this year, as they anticipate strong growth in
business activity. This comes after three years in which falling share
prices and a dry-up of M&As saw investment banks shed thousands of jobs.
Hiring is already at its highest level for years in areas such as
operations and risk management, and strong demand is also forecast for
workers in derivatives, product control and technical accounting, and for
those with documentation skills.
With demand for skilled workers high, the market is becoming more
candidate-driven and, according to Morgan McKinley, talented individuals
are able to negotiate attractive pay packages. For the very best, firms
are even beginning to reintroduce ‘golden hellos’ and guaranteed bonuses.
Most City firms expect basic salaries to remain steady this year, although
36 per cent of those surveyed thought they would rise by an average of 8
per cent. The average City salary is now $86,000, 1.6 per cent more than a
year ago. However, many professionals are more concerned these days with
their overall compensation package – including work/life balance and
career progression – than simply with the size of their pay-packet.
A separate survey, by statistical analysis company iProfileStats, shows
that there is also strong demand for skilled IT workers, which is
translating into higher pay rates both in the financial and the public
services sectors. IT contractors in the public sector saw their hourly
median contract rate rise by 33 per cent last year, from $55 an hour to
$73. Rates were better still in the financial services sector, where they
increased by 25 per cent to $91.50 an hour.
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Overseas
companies score successes in Queen’s Awards
A total of 26 of the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise granted this year went
to companies either owned or partly owned by organisations based overseas.
In total, there were 137 awards, the highest total for 10 years, as the
scheme celebrated its 40th anniversary. The Queen’s Award is the highest
honour the UK government can confer on a business, and it is made to a
company as a whole, both management and employees, for its work as a team.
There are three categories: International Trade, Innovation and
Sustainable Development, with this year a new Enterprise Promotion award
for individuals who have played an outstanding role in developing
entrepreneurship. There is no set number of awards to be made in any year,
and the greater number of awards this time around was due simply to the
higher calibre of companies applying, according to a spokesman for the
scheme. |
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Stephen Brice (L) and David Moore (R) of the Queen's Awards Office
pictured at the 40th Anniversary Winner's Reception in London |
The largest
overseas company to be honoured was the UK subsidiary of Toyota,
which employs 4,454 people and manufactures cars at its Burnaston
plant in Derbyshire in the East Midlands. Its International Trade
award was based on the fact that it has almost doubled the value of
its exports over the past three years, to $3.6 billion annually. It
sends its Avensis and Corolla cars to 80 countries worldwide –
including 1,100 a month to Japan. |
Three other Asia-Pacific
companies were honoured, including two based in Peterborough,
Eastern England – Indamex Ltd, owned by Vibropower Corporation of
Singapore, and Perkins Shibaura Engines, owned jointly by IHI of
Japan and Caterpillar of the US, both in the International Trade
category. Japanese-owned Fujitsu Telecommunications Europe, Ltd,
based in Birmingham in the West Midlands, was honoured in the
Innovation category.
Twelve International Trade awards were won by North American-owned
companies. The diverse range of winners included Edmund Bell &
Company of Bradford (owned by Leggett & Platt of the US); Cunningham
Lindsey International of London (Fairfax Financial Holdings of
Canada); Diomed Ltd of Cambridge (Diomed Holdings Inc of the US);
Northbrook Technology of Belfast, Northern Ireland (Allstate
Corporation of the US); Innovation B&W Loudspeakers of Worthing,
South East England (B&W International of Bermuda); and Interface
Fabrics of Mirfield, West Yorkshire (Interface Inc of the US).
Seven European-owned companies won International Trade awards, among
them Arcotronics Ltd of Towcester in the East Midlands (Arcotronics
Nissei Group of Italy); Delta Biotechnology of Nottingham (Sanofi
Aventis, France); Outukumpu Stainless Ltd of Sheffield (Outukumpu,
Finland); and Sortex Ltd of London (Buhler AG, Switzerland). Three
firms of European origin were honoured in the Innovation category:
apetito Ltd of Trowbridge (apetito AG, Germany); Krohne of
Northamptonshire (Krohne Messtechnik, Germany) and Selenia
Communications of Chelmsford, Essex (Finmeccanica, Italy). |
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Hi-tech organisations
take the lead in research
Total UK investment in clean energy
(technologies that emit less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels) has reached
more than $1.8 billion and is growing by 30 per cent a year, according to the
Carbon Trust. If growth continues at this rate, the market for technologies such
as wind, solar and wave energy could be increasing at $3.6 billion a year by
2015. A number of clean energy companies from the US and Australia have chosen
to list in London instead of at home, because the UK’s capital markets are seen
as having more expertise in renewable energy than many other regions of the
world.
In the life sciences sector, the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and its
spin-out company Haptogen have secured two multi-million-dollar research
partnerships with the government of South Korea and the Korea Health Industry
Development Institute. The collaborations will focus on research into drugs to
combat Alzheimer’s disease and infectious diseases such as the superbug MRSA. A
new Infectious Diseases Consortium is being set up at the University of
Cambridge in Eastern England to research the evolution, spread and control of
infectious animal diseases that may be transmissible to humans. Centred on the
University of Cambridge Veterinary School, the new initiative will focus on
serious threats to public health such as Sars, BSE, avian influenza, foot and
mouth disease and West Nile Fever.
Also in Eastern England, Cranfield University in Bedfordshire has launched a
Network of Excellence in Affordability Engineering. The network involves a
number of partners from academic institutions in the UK and the US and from
industry, including companies such as Ford, AMS Radar Systems, Lotus Cars and
Rolls-Royce. Affordability engineering uses cost estimating and risk analysis
information throughout the life-cycle of a product to ensure that it is
affordable to both consumer and manufacturer.
Work has started on a first technology park for Birmingham in the West Midlands,
on a 40-acre site formerly owned by car-maker MG Rover. The Longbridge
Technology Park will create around 600,000 sq ft of accommodation, including
high-quality space for R&D and production. The first buildings could be
completed as early as next spring. A new $18 million business incubation centre
is to be built on a 3.2-acre site next to the Tremough campus near Penryn in
Cornwall, South West England, to provide 50,000 sq ft of space for companies
working with the Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC).
In North West England, meanwhile, Lancaster University Management School has
launched a new leadership centre to pioneer research and to develop the leaders
of the future. The Lancaster Leadership Centre (LLC) will house 80 staff in a
purpose-built $18 million building, and will work to pioneer new ways of
building leadership capability in organisations across the world.
Ricardo to develop Rover
technology for SAIC
Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) has recruited UK-based Ricardo,
a global automotive technology provider and consultancy, to supply it with the
engineering research and development capability it had been seeking to acquire
from MG Rover before the recent collapse of the British car-maker. Ricardo,
which is based in West Sussex and has 1,750 engineering staff worldwide, is
recruiting a team of 150 engineers and designers, many of them former employees
of MG Rover, to be based at Leamington Spa in the West Midlands, near MG Rover’s
former base at Longbridge in Birmingham. The wide-ranging contract, believed to
run until at least the end of the decade, will see Ricardo develop a full range
of cars for SAIC, in line with its declared intention of becoming one of the
biggest fully integrated car-makers in the world. SAIC bought many of the
intellectual property rights to the Rover 25 and 75 models and the K-Series
engine from MG Rover before it went into administration, but has lacked the
capacity to design and develop its own models. Ricardo will now help it to
transfer production of Rover cars and engines to its base in China.
In a separate development, Ricardo has announced a 50 per cent expansion of its
facility in Cambridge, Eastern England, which specialises in advanced embedded
software and control and electronics systems. The expanded, 12,000 sq ft
facility will include new laboratory space for the construction and testing of
prototype electronic systems and will become the central location for the
company’s work on projects such as hybrid vehicles, engine management systems,
powertrain and vehicle control systems, on-board diagnostics and embedded
software. The expansion will involve the recruitment of an extra 20 staff.
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Back in the West Midlands, US motorcycle
manufacturer Harley-Davidson is to open a European training centre
for its employees at Bromsgrove North East Worcestershire College.
Previously, staff from UK dealerships had to travel to the US for
training, but now Harley-Davidson staff from across Europe will
utilise the facility. When not in use by the company, the centre –
set up with the help of a $3.1 million grant from Regional
Development Agency (RDA) Advantage West Midlands – will be available
to local businesses and students on motorcycle and engineering
courses. It is hoped that up to 200 people will be trained there
each year. |
Total production of cars in the UK in the
three months to March 2005, seasonally adjusted, fell by 1.7 per cent compared
with the previous three months, according to the ONS. Production allocated for
the home market rose by 4.1 per cent, while export production decreased by 0.4
per cent. Compared with a year previously, and again seasonally adjusted,
overall production decreased by 0.6 per cent. Production of commercial vehicles
fell by 1.4 per cent compared with the previous three months and by 4.2 per cent
compared with the same period a year earlier. The Society of Motor Manufacturers
and Traders, however, remained confident that the productivity of the UK’s
plants, strong exports and a stable European market will mean that year-end
production figures for 2005 will be close to the high levels seen in 2004.
Grimsby and Immingham
retains top berth in port traffic
Data from the Department for Transport show
that total freight traffic through UK ports rose by 16.4 million tonnes (Mt) to
572.1 Mt in 2004, 3 per cent more than in 2003. Inwards traffic rose by 17.6 Mt
to 341.4 Mt while outwards traffic fell by 1.2 Mt to 230.7 Mt. Traffic through
the 52 major ports reached 557.2 Mt, up 18.2 Mt on 2003; this accounted for 97
per cent of the UK total. Grimsby and Immingham in Yorkshire and Humber
maintained its position as the country’s leading port, with 57.6 Mt, up 1.7 Mt
from 2003. It was followed by Tees and Hartlepool (53.8 Mt), London (53.5 Mt),
Milford Haven (38.5 Mt) and Southampton (38.4 Mt). Other top ten ports were
Forth, Liverpool, Sullom Voe, Felixstowe and Dover.
Great Yarmouth in Eastern England is set to reclaim its position as a leading
European gateway, after the government agreed to provide public funding for the
port’s $79.6 million Outer Harbour expansion scheme. The project will provide
space for vessels up to 210 metres in length and with a draught of 8.5m, and
will include at least one dedicated roll-on/roll-off terminal. There will be
space for a further terminal when required, and two general quays. Superfast
Ferries has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate a daily ferry
service to Ijmuiden in the Netherlands. The crossing will take five hours, 75
minutes less than current North Sea freight crossings, and it is anticipated
that the three-times-a-day service will carry 150,000–200,000 trucks a year. The
Outer Harbour scheme is scheduled for completion by the 2008 summer season.
Nearby Felixstowe, meanwhile, which is the UK’s largest container port, has
recently put into operation a set of the latest Ultra post-Panamax cranes,
supplied by Zhenhua Port Machinery Company of Shanghai. The cranes are capable
of handling containers stowed 22 wide, and are equipped with twin-lift
capability and a heavy lift capacity of 85 tonnes. They were used to unload and
load the Chinese mega-ship CSCL Europe, owned by China Shipping Container Lines,
when it called at the port earlier this year. The 4,077 container moves handled
on the 334-metre-long ship were thought to be the largest ever exchange of
containers in a UK port.
A new rail freight park is planned for Wentloog in Cardiff, South Wales,
alongside the existing Cardiff International Rail Freight Terminal. When
completed, it is envisaged that the 35-acre park will house 435,000 sq ft of
warehousing and freight handling facilities. Users – who are expected to be
largely supermarket operators or manufacturers of bulk goods – will be able to
access the existing terminal and will also have a direct connection to the main
Swansea-Paddington rail line. The new facility will enable a significant amount
of freight to be switched from roads around the Welsh capital to rail, and will
create up to 200 new jobs.
Robin Hood is cleared for
take-off
The first commercial passenger flights lifted off from Robin Hood Airport
Doncaster Sheffield in South Yorkshire at the end of April, after five years’
work to transform the former RAF Finningley airbase into the UK’s first new
full-service airport in nearly 40 years, since Stansted was approved in 1966.
The facility is operated by Peel Holdings, which already runs Liverpool John
Lennon, Durham Tees Valley and Sheffield City airports. Set in a catchment area
of around 5 million people, Robin Hood is expected to act as an economic
catalyst for significant areas of the Yorkshire and Humber and East Midlands
regions and to become an important gateway for both business and tourist travel.
The airport’s two-mile-long runway is the only one in the UK outside London with
the capacity to accommodate the new A380 Airbus, which made its maiden flight in
the same week as Robin Hood opened. The new airport is expected to handle 1.3
million passengers in its first year, rising to 2.3 million within five years,
and will serve 33 destinations in 20 countries. In addition to Europe, it will
serve long-haul routes to Florida, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Within
five years it is also expected to be handling 50,000 tons of freight a year. An
800-acre airport business park supports 100 companies, and a further 60-acre
site is planned to accommodate distribution centres and additional hangar space.
The first flight to take off on 28 April was a Thomsonfly.com 737-300 jet,
carrying 149 passengers to Palma, Majorca in Spain.
One of Thomsonfly.com’s services from Robin Hood Airport will be a
six-times-a-week link to Paris. Elsewhere, Estonian Air has begun flying between
Manchester in North West England and the Estonian capital Tallinn, while Polish
low-cost carrier Wizz Air has introduced a new service between Poznan and London
Luton, operating four times a week.
Tentative signs of
renewal in office rentals market
Occupier demand for office premises continued to grow in the first quarter of
2005, but faltering retail sales saw the biggest fall of take-up of retail space
for two years, according to a poll of surveyors around the UK. The latest Royal
Institute of Chartered Surveyors research found that a net 17 per cent of
surveyors reported an increase in demand over the period, compared with 13 per
cent in the previous quarter. Demand was at its briskest in London, where 44 per
cent of surveyors reported a rise. Vacant office space and the value of
incentives offered to tenants both fell at their fastest rate for more than four
years, while lease lengths showed the smallest decline since the second quarter
of 2001. Demand for industrial space increased modestly, due to strong activity
in the distribution sector.
Property adviser Knight Frank meanwhile has predicted a “fragile and tentative”
recovery for commercial property lettings in the stagnant M25 market around
London, with vacancy rates falling to levels not seen since the IT boom of 2001.
It expects vacancies to fall from the current rate of 8.2 per cent to 5.5 per
cent by May 2006, although it does not expect rents to begin rising again until
that time. Lettings in the area have suffered badly since the dotcom downturn.
Stockley Park, for example, a 1.7 million sq ft business park in west London
close to Heathrow Airport, currently has a vacancy rate of 37 per cent – but,
more positively, it has seen recent interest from a number of companies,
including Sharp Electronics and hosting provider Rackspace, that could take
185,000 sq ft of space off the market.
In London itself a number of prestigious office developments are being readied
for the market. Space is available at the 103,000 sq ft Metropolis House tower
on Tottenham Court Road in the West End. Buildings 2 and 3 of the Bankside
development in Southwark SE1 are to go ahead speculatively, providing 155,000 sq
ft and 202,000 sq ft of office space respectively, together with shops. At 5 Old
Broad Street EC2, the refurbished 29,000 sq ft fifth floor and 23,000 sq ft
sixth floor of the 170,000 sq ft building are now ready for occupation, at a
rent of $87 per sq ft. Up to 100,000 sq ft of space will be available at the
landmark Unilever House at Blackfriars EC4 by early 2007. The 250,000 sq ft HQ
building is currently being redeveloped, but Unilever itself will reoccupy at
least 150,000 sq ft when it is complete.
Elsewhere, a $180 million business park is planned for Whitfield on the
outskirts of Dover in South East England. The second phase of the White Cliffs
Business Park will include 699,400 sq ft of offices and a 61,700 sq ft retail
warehouse. Also in the South East, the Endeavour Business Park at Havant in
Hampshire has been officially launched. The 50,000 sq ft development offers
office and light industrial units ranging in size from 1,241 sq ft to 13,900 sq
ft.
In Gloucestershire, South West England, Japanese motor giant Honda is partnering
a developer to build a 250,000 sq ft speculative office scheme on a 14-acre site
it owns at Tewkesbury Business Park. At the same time, developer ProLogis will
build a 350,000 sq ft distribution centre at South Marston Park in Swindon for
Honda Logistics UK, along with a further speculative 300,000 sq ft warehouse. In
South Yorkshire, planning permission has been granted for a speculative
development of industrial units at Oxspring Sidings near Barnsley. The units
range in size from 4,000 sq ft to 8,000 sq ft and are available variously on
leaseholds or for sale on freehold terms.
Midlands investment
agencies report a record year
RDA Advantage West Midlands enjoyed a record year for inward investment in
2004/05, assisting 32 projects, which between them created 2,644 jobs. The
figures were the best since the agency was established, beating the previous
record of 1999/2000, when it helped to generate 2,333 jobs. Last year a total of
4,072 jobs in total were created and a further 2,144 safeguarded by companies
moving into the region or expanding from outside it. Advantage West Midlands has
a network of overseas offices around the world, and the region is now home to
2,300 foreign-owned enterprises employing around 250,000 people – 10 per cent of
the local workforce.
In a new initiative, Advantage West Midlands is to offer grants worth up to
$45,750 to start-ups and existing small and medium-sized enterprises in the
fields of medical technology and advanced materials technology. The scheme, part
of the $2.7 million Technology Transfer Fund, will focus on companies in the
region’s designated Central Technology Belt, which stretches from Birmingham to
Malvern.
In the neighbouring East Midlands, the Invest Leicestershire agency also had a
successful year, with the number of jobs created or safeguarded increasing by 28
per cent year-on-year. Among the overseas companies it assisted to set up
operations during 2004/05 were ASIMCO Technologies, a Chinese producer of
automotive components; Emerio Corporation, a Singapore-based provider of IT
consulting services; WeissTechnik, a leading European company in the field of
environmental test chambers and industrial ovens; and Spiralock, a US-based
leader in screw thread technology. East Midlands Development Agency (emda) is
urging overseas companies to apply for Selective Finance for Investment in
England (SFIE) grants, a scheme that offers financial assistance of up to $3.6
million to companies creating jobs in disadvantaged areas of the country.
Around the regions
Coca-Cola Bottlers, part of Coca-Cola HBC, is to build a major production
facility at Knockmore Hill, near Lisburn in Northern Ireland. The company will
transfer all of its Irish production, warehousing and bottle-making operations
to the new $93 million factory, which is expected to open in late 2006.
Coca-Cola HBC is based in Greece and is a key regional bottler for the US-owned
multinational. The company has been in negotiations with Invest Northern Ireland
for the past two years, and considered 60 sites across Ireland before settling
on Lisburn.
Another food processor, Moy Park, a division of the US-based OSI Group, is to
invest a further $73 million at its four plants in Northern Ireland. The company
is the province’s largest food processor, employing 3,500 people, and is a key
supplier to the UK retail sector. The food and drink processing sector employs
more than 19,000 people in Northern Ireland in total and generates an annual
turnover of $3.6 billion, accounting for 21 per cent of the province’s
manufacturing activity.
Caterpillar, the US-based manufacturer of construction equipment, is to create a
second shared services centre in Larne, Northern Ireland, where it is
represented by FG Wilson Engineering. It will set up an information systems
shared services facility for its UK operations at the FG Wilson site, which it
will run as an integral part of the systems and processes division already based
there.
Also in Northern Ireland, government support worth $329 million is to be
provided to Bombardier Aerospace Belfast (BAB). The funding – consisting of up
to $274 million in Launch Investment and $55 million in Selective Financial
Assistance – will allow BAB to be selected as one of the key suppliers to its
parent company Bombardier for its new CSeries family of airliners. The programme,
which will generate up to 3,200 new jobs, will see the creation of a centre of
excellence in Belfast for aircraft wing manufacture and will bring three prime
work packages to the city, for the development and manufacture of the airliners’
wings, engine casings and part of the tail.
Kia Motors (UK) Ltd, a subsidiary of Kia Motors Corporation of South Korea, is
to open a purpose-built, $15 million vehicle distribution centre at Killingholme,
near the major port of Grimsby in Yorkshire and Humber. The facility will
include workshops and preparation areas and will be able to accommodate up to
10,500 vehicles. It is expected to operational by August, and will create more
than 300 new jobs.
Protedyne Corporation, a US-based supplier of laboratory automation technology,
has opened a European sales and support office in Takeley, Eastern England.
Meanwhile, a US buy-out firm, Warburg Pincus, has bought British boiler
manufacturer Caradon Plumbing for $431 million. Caradon, based in Newcastle upon
Tyne in North East England, makes boilers under the Ideal brand, together with
Stelrad radiators.
O2, one of the UK’s leading mobile phone operators, is to open a new customer
service call centre in Glasgow, Scotland, creating 1,500 new jobs. The company
has taken more than 100,000 sq ft of space at the Skypark office complex in the
city centre. Over the next two years, O2 will invest $32.9 million in the new
facility; it was assisted by a Regional Selective Assistance grant worth $12.8
million from the Scottish Executive. In the meantime, NextNine, an Israeli
provider of automated, remote service and support software, has also opened an
office in Glasgow.
Kaupthing Bank, based in Iceland, is to acquire the Singer and Friedlander
financial services group, based in London, for just over $1 billion. The company
will focus its efforts on providing integrated financial services to small and
medium-sized businesses and private clients in the UK.
Viola Networks, a Pennsylvania-based provider of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
performance management and deployment assessment software, has opened an office
in London, to provide sales and marketing services and customer support to
customers in EMEA markets. Another US-based IT company, network security
specialist Apani Networks, is to set up a similar operation in the capital under
the control of a new subsidiary, Apani Europe. Similarly, Proactivenet, a US
provider of business services management software, has opened a European sales
office in London. The company, based in Santa Clara, California, offers a range
of technologies designed to improve the availability, performance and
cost-effectiveness of IT operations.
Video Without Boundaries (VWB) a US provider of interactive home entertainment
devices, has formed a European subsidiary, based in London, to develop
wholesaler and retail opportunities across the EMEA region for its MediaREADY
broadband media devices. The company’s CEO and president, Jeffrey Harrell, said:
“We have chosen to base our EMEA operations in the UK because that market has
been the leader in digital TV technical deployment.”
Zamage Digital Art Imaging Inc, a Canadian publisher of photo-to-art artwork,
has opened a representative office in London. The company, which produces
exclusive limited edition images, is looking to expand its presence in the
online, business-to-business and retail fine art markets.
Modine Manufacturing Company, a US-based thermal management company, has bought
Airedale International, a designer and manufacturer of air conditioning systems
based in Leeds, Yorkshire and Humber. Airedale’s facility will become the
headquarters for Modine’s European heating and ventilation, air condition and
refrigeration division, and will serve as its worldwide design centre for air
conditioning systems.
A subsidiary of Koppers UK, which itself is a subsidiary of US chemicals and
industrial group Koppers, is to acquire the business and assets of Lambson
Speciality Chemicals from the Lambson Group, based in Castleford, Yorkshire and
Humber. A new venture – Koppers Lambson – will be created, with Lambson
Speciality Chemicals transferring its operations to the Koppers site at Port
Clarence in North East England and its management to Koppers’ European
headquarters at Scunthorpe in Yorkshire and Humber.
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