September 2005

News

BoE cuts headline interest rate in bid to stoke economy
The Bank of England cut its main interest rate by a quarter of one per cent in August, to 4.5 per cent. The cut, the first in two years, was made in response to slowing economic growth, with the aim of boosting consumer confidence. The reduction was described as “fine-tuning” on the part of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, but it was thought unlikely that any further cuts would follow in the near future. Observers expected the rate to stay at 4.5 per cent until at least the end of the year, as the economy begins to emerge from a recent “soft patch” that has seen a downturn in consumer spending and a fall in house price inflation. The cut comes exactly a year after the Bank last raised interest rates in order to cool an overheating housing market. House prices have remained virtually unchanged since the beginning of this year, with zero annual inflation.

Business indicators remain relatively healthy. New orders are picking up in the services sector, which accounts for two-thirds of the UK economy, and equity markets are buoyant. There has also been a surge in mergers and acquisitions activity. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), acquisitions of UK companies by other UK companies increased from $6.3 billion in the first quarter of 2005 to $16 billion in the second, while acquisitions by UK companies of foreign firms grew from $6.3 billion to $12.4 billion. One of the most significant deals in this category was the acquisition of United Defense Industries, Inc by BAE Systems, for approximately $4.1 billion.

Acquisitions of UK companies by foreign companies declined from $21.4 billion to $14.2 billion over the three-month period. One of the biggest deals here was the $2.5 billion takeover of Kidde plc by United Technologies Corporation. Other significant transactions included the acquisition of the North of England distribution network of National Grid Transco by a consortium led by Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings of Hong Kong; the acquisition of the same company’s Wales and West network by a consortium led by Macquarie Bank Group; Dubai International Capital’s purchase of The Tussauds Group; and Bakkavor’s takeover of Geest plc.

Another ONS report shows that business and financial services continue to form the largest part of the UK economy, as they have done in each year since 1992. As of 2003, the sector accounted for 31.7 per cent of total UK gross value added (GVA) of $1.8 trillion, up from 27.6 per cent in 1998. Manufacturing industry’s share of GVA, on the other hand, fell from 20.1 per cent in 1998 to 14.8 per cent. The contribution of the construction industry grew steadily in each year surveyed, rising from 5.1 per cent in 1998 to 6.2 per cent in 2003, while the share claimed by the creative industries rose from 8.7 per cent to 9.2 per cent. Among the fastest-growing sectors over the period 1992–2003 were computers and related services, business services, insurance and pension funds, the catering and hospitality sector, and real estate.


R&D spending by business is up again
Spending on research and development in the UK amounted to $37.4 billion in 2003, equivalent to 1.86 per cent of GDP, according to ONS figures. This is an increase over 2002, when the figures were $35.6 billion and 1.87 per cent respectively. The figures compare with a total R&D spend in the US of $317.5 billion, or 2.6 per cent of GDP, and a European Union average of 1.93 per cent of GDP. Nearly 66 per cent of R&D spending in the UK was undertaken by business, compared with 21.4 per cent by the higher education sector and 5.9 per cent by government. Seventy-seven per cent of business R&D was in the manufacturing sector and 21 per cent in the services sector. Regionally, spending was highest in the South East ($6.3 billion) and lowest in the North East ($505.8 million). Of government spending, 32 per cent was defence-related, compared with 37 per cent back in 1995.

Eastman Kodak Company of the US is to consolidate its R&D operations in Europe, opening a new European Research Division facility in Cambridge in Eastern England. The new facility, opening in late 2005 and employing 25–30 people, will take advantage of links with the world-renowned Cambridge University and the large number of high-tech start-up companies in the area. It will focus on digital imaging, display technology and healthcare, drawing on European expertise and innovation in these sectors. Also in Cambridge, Ember Corporation, a US-based supplier of wireless networking technology, has opened a new R&D and business facility. The premises will accommodate the company’s expanded IC development team and a business development team focused on EMEA markets.

French pharmaceutical company Servier Laboratories, which has been expanding in the UK for some time, has opened a multi-million-dollar R&D laboratory in Wexham Springs in South East England. Paris-based Servier specialises in the development of cardiovascular drugs and drugs for cancer, diabetes and the central nervous system. The new facility will house a drug metabolism pharmacokinetics lab and will serve as the company’s UK base for an international therapeutic research centre.

Biomatrix Pharma, a Norwegian health supplement and functional food company, has set up a UK operation at the recently-opened Technium centre in Aberystwyth, West Wales. The $5.4 million Technium development provides 8,000 sq ft of space for emerging businesses, together with specialist support and advice services.


Competition intensifies as broadband increases market share
Broadband internet connectivity continues to increase in the UK, accounting for 52.4 per cent of all new subscriptions in June, according to the monthly survey of internet service providers by the ONS. This compares with a figure of 50.7 per cent in May, the first month in which broadband connections exceeded 50 per cent of the total. Overall, active subscriptions grew by 5.2 per cent between June 2004 and June 2005.

Telecoms provider Cable & Wireless has taken over competitor Energis in a deal worth more than $1 billion. C&W, which becomes the UK’s second largest network operator, beat off a bid from Glasgow-based Thus, a much smaller rival carrier spun out of Scottish power in 1999. Privately-owned Energis specialises primarily in the corporate sector. The takeover is the latest sign of consolidation in an overcrowded and fiercely competitive communications market.

A new company, Be, is planning to launch a high-speed ADSL2+ broadband service that will treble the currently available top speed of 8Mbps to 24Mbps. The service should be available in London some time in October. The company, which previously traded under the name Avatar Broadband, is one of the first operators in the UK to use the routing equipment and technology of French firm Alcatel, but it will still make use of BT’s exchanges. So far it is keeping its pricing policy under wraps, but claims it will be “competitive”.

Another new arrival is Teles Wireless Broadband Internet, a German provider of satellite broadband access, which has set up a UK subsidiary, Teles skyDSL UK, based in Birmingham in the West Midlands. The company’s product, skyDSL, offers high-speed access anywhere within its satellite footprint, independent of ADSL infrastructure on the ground.


Car production to restart as Nanjing Auto acquires Rover assets
Chinese car-maker Nanjing Automobile has won a battle with its compatriot SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) to take over the assets of UK car manufacturer MG Rover, which went out of business earlier this year. Nanjing Automobile will build at least some cars in the UK, carrying out final assembly at MG Rover’s existing facilities at Longbridge in the West Midlands. The Chinese company plans to employ up to 2,000 British workers at Longbridge, and will operate an R&D technical facility there.

The demise of Rover has contributed to a slowdown in car production in the UK, with volumes falling by 2.8 per cent in the first half of 2005, according to the ONS and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Export levels, however, remain strong, as evidenced by a month-on-month increase of 2.5 per cent in June. Production of commercial vehicles is also healthy, with output in the three months to June up 31.6 per cent year-on-year. Production in June was 0.5 per cent higher than in June 2004, while overall production grew 1.1 per cent over the first six months of 2005. Demand is strong in both the UK and the EU, particularly for light commercial vehicles.

Meanwhile, Lotus is to build a new high-performance ‘Circuit Car’ at its headquarters in Hethel, Norfolk in Eastern England. The racetrack model will serve to promote the Lotus brand; about 100 vehicles will be built each year, with production set to begin in December 2005.


British workers get more say on work/life balance
A comprehensive new workplace survey shows that the way employees balance work and family responsibilities has changed significantly in recent years. The 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey, conducted by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), shows that equal opportunities have grown in importance and that employers have a much greater understanding of the need for flexible working than in 1998, the last time such a study was undertaken. Some 28 per cent of businesses now allow employees to work from home, compared with 16 per cent in 1998. There has also been an increase in flexi-time (26 per cent, up from 19 per cent), job-sharing (41 per cent, up from 31 per cent), parental leave (73 per cent, up from 38 per cent) and paid paternity leave (92 per cent, up from 48 per cent).

Eighty-four per cent of managers believed it was up to the individual to balance their work and family responsibilities, compared with 65 per cent in 1998. More workplaces also have equal opportunities policies in place – 73 per cent compared with 64 per cent – with religion, sexual orientation and age all featuring highly. However, women are still severely under-represented in management, with the 1998 proportion of 73 per cent declining only marginally to 72 per cent. Half of all employees are in workplaces with a recognised trade union, with 34 per cent actually belonging to a union and 40 per cent having their pay set through collective bargaining.

In terms of management, the use of performance appraisals is on the increase, with 78 per cent of managers using them compared with 73 per cent six years earlier. Off-the-job training is now seen in 84 per cent of workplaces, compared with 73 per cent, and more workplaces involve non-managerial staff in problem-solving or discussions about performance (21 per cent versus 16 per cent). There are part-time employees at 83 per cent of workplaces, up from 79 per cent in 1998.
 

Go-ahead given for new Thames port development
The government has provisionally approved P&O Ports’ plans for a new port on the River Thames at Thurrock in Essex, following a lengthy public inquiry. The London Gateway development, on the 1,500-acre brownfield site of the former Shell Haven oil refinery, promises to be the UK’s biggest container port. Plans include a 2.3km container quay with an annual capacity of 3.5 million TEU (standard container units), plus a roll-on roll-off freight facility. The first berth will go into operation by 2008, with others phased in over a 12-year period. The development will create 16,500 jobs, 2,000 at the port itself and a further 14,500 at an adjoining logistics and business park. Total construction costs are estimated at more than $2.5 billion. Final approval for the scheme is contingent on agreement between P&O and the government on the funding of road upgrades to the site.

Some port operators argue that capacity should be increased outside the South East, relieving pressure there and helping to stimulate growth in other regions. Plans have been put forward for new deep-sea terminals at Teesport near Middlesbrough in the North East, Liverpool in the North West, Bristol in the South West and at Hunterston on the Firth of Clyde. The government is currently in the process of drawing up a national ports policy.

Meanwhile shipping line Norasia has launched a new Asia Middle East Express (AME) service from Felixstowe. The AME will be one of the fastest port-to-port services linking Asia, Europe and the Middle East. It will connect ports in China with Northern Europe, and will make calls in the Red Sea and the Middle East on its return leg, without making a stop in the Mediterranean. The transit time from Yantian in China to Le Havre in France will be only 20 days, and the eastbound leg from Felixstowe to Jebel Ali will take 14 days. Norasia will deploy nine ships with a speed of 24 knots and an initial capacity of 4,000 TEU, to be upgraded to 5,500 TEU in the first half of 2006. The Hong Kong-based company is part of the CSAV Group, which is headquartered in Valparaiso, Chile.


Freight volumes continue to grow
On the roads, the latest Department for Transport survey shows that freight moved within the UK by British-registered heavy goods vehicles increased by 0.3 per cent in 2004 to 152.2 billion tonne-kilometres, compared with 151.7 billion tonne-kilometres in 2003. Articulated vehicles over 33 tonnes gross weight continue to account for an increasing share of the total: 72 per cent of total tonne-kilometres in 2004, compared with 60 per cent ten years previously. The total of freight moved increased by 10 per cent from 1994 to 2004, and the total lifted by 9 per cent. From 2003, total freight lifted increased by 6 per cent, from 1,643 million tonnes to 1,744 million tonnes.

The total number of goods vehicles travelling to mainland Europe in the second quarter of 2005 was 704,300, an increase of 4 per cent both from the previous quarter and from the corresponding quarter of 2004. Of that total, 515,500 were powered vehicles, 5 per cent more than in the previous quarter. Twenty-five per cent of all powered vehicles were UK-registered, the same proportion as a year earlier.

The Welsh Assembly has awarded a freight facilities grant worth $4 million to Celsa Manufacturing UK to help the company develop rail freight facilities at its sites in the Welsh capital Cardiff. FFGs are intended to assist companies to remove heavy lorry traffic from roads. When completed, Celsa’s facilities will handle inbound trainloads of raw materials and outbound loads of finished goods, removing an estimated 300,000 lorry journeys, or nearly 50 million miles, from local roads over the next ten years.

American Airlines Cargo Division, based in Fort Worth, Texas, is to open a new airside export facility at Heathrow Airport, outside London. The centre will add extra capacity to American’s activities at Heathrow, with its existing facilities continuing to handle imports. American is also to operate a new daily scheduled passenger service between Newcastle International Airport in North East England and New York’s John F Kennedy Airport. The service, commencing in May 2006, will use Boeing 757 aircraft with an all-economy class service of 188 seats, together with specialist cargo delivery services. At Norwich International Airport in East Anglia, low-cost passenger carrier Flybe is launching 31 new routes. New domestic services include Norwich to Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Manchester, Cardiff and Belfast, while international routes include Amsterdam, Chambery and Geneva.


English Partnerships chalks up another successful year
Headline rents for prime office space in central London remained unchanged in the second quarter of 2005, at an average of $81 per sq ft in the City financial district and $117 per sq ft in the West End, according to core (central offices research), the quarterly survey by DTZ Research. Inducements also remained stable, with landlords typically offering 15-months rent-free on a 15-year lease. The amount of available space fell from 23.9 million sq ft in the first quarter to 21.4 million sq ft in the second, with an availability ratio of 9.7 per cent, compared with 11.9 per cent at the end of March.

Take-up in the second quarter rose to 3.7 million sq ft from 3.4 million sq ft in the first. The volume of space under offer increased to 3.7 million sq ft, while known requirements also grew, to 5.9 million sq ft. Construction starts grew significantly in the second quarter, to 1.5 million sq ft from 570,000 sq ft three months previously, while the amount of space under construction totalled 6 million sq ft. Significant lets included Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui’s lease of a 90,000 sq ft building at 99 Queen Victoria Street EC4 and British Petroleum’s expansion at 20 Canada Square E14, where it took 47,000 sq ft to add to the 215,000 sq ft it already leases.

The government’s regeneration agency, English Partnerships, which is responsible for the regeneration of brownfield and urban sites, exceeded its targets and invested a total of $869.4 million across England in 2004/05, according to the organisation’s annual report. It reclaimed 650 acres of brownfield land and created nearly 2 million sq ft of floorspace for employment. It also started or completed construction of nearly 7,000 homes on the sites it owns, many of them affordable homes for key workers.

English Partnerships invested $52.9 million in Urban Regeneration Companies across the English regions, with major schemes in Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Corby and the Tees Valley, and a further $82.8 million in the National Coalfields Programme, which aims to regenerate former mining areas. It has identified a portfolio of 49 major strategic projects in 36 locations, including Greenwich Peninsula and Barking Riverside in east London, the Kings Waterfront development in Liverpool and Millbay Docks in Plymouth. Other major developments include Central Business Exchange III and Oxley Park in Milton Keynes and Middlehaven near Middlesbrough in the North East.


Olympic fever heralds development bonanza
Developers in the South East have been encouraged by a surge of interest following London’s successful bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Industry analysts expect a significant increase in demand from companies wanting to locate in the Thames Gateway area in the run-up to the Games, with land prices set to double or triple. This is good news for business park and office developments in the area, such as the Royals Business Park and Silvertown Quays, which until now have struggled to fill space. Three buildings in Canary Wharf and another on Marsh Wall in the City are on a shortlist to serve as the headquarters of the Olympic Organising Committee.

To prepare for the Games, the London Development Agency plans to carry out the UK’s biggest ever compulsory purchase of land to move landlords and businesses out of the 500-acre site in the Lower Lea Valley, where the Olympic Village will be built. The LDA wants possession of the site by mid-2007, with construction scheduled to begin in 2008. Some 80.9 per cent of the land is already under public ownership or control; the LDA is negotiating with businesses to acquire the remainder, although it will use compulsory purchase orders where necessary. Away from the capital, a $180 million mixed-use development is planned for Weymouth on the south coast, which will host the Olympic sailing events. The redevelopment of the town’s Pleasure Pier will include a new ferry terminal, a 1,200-seater theatre and a hotel.

One big Thames Gateway project will be The Bridge, a 264-acre development near the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge in Dartford, Kent. Approval has been granted for a mixed-use scheme that, as well as housing, will incorporate 1.5 million sq ft of commercial space, including a 330,000 sq ft science park and a 30,000 sq ft innovation centre. In London itself, approval has been given for 2.6 million sq ft of new developments, including a 34-storey office tower at 201 Bishopsgate EC2 in the City, a new 221,000 sq ft development on the former site of the Stock Exchange at 60 Threadneedle Street and a 350,000 sq ft, 19-storey office tower at Mitre Square EC3.

There are 31 major new developments planned for the capital by 2012: they can be inspected at London’s first dedicated architectural exhibition space, which opened in July. New London Architecture (NLA), at the Building Centre, 26 Store Street WC1, will host The Changing Face of London exhibition until 10 September. Visit it online at: www.newlondonarchitecture.org

Elsewhere in the South East, speculative development at three sites promises to create a further 300,000 sq ft of shed space for distribution. There will be 165,000 sq ft contained in 16 units at Festival Park in Basildon, Essex; 82,500 sq ft at Stirling Park in Rochester, Kent; and 64,500 sq ft at Maple Park in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. In Bristol in the South West, approval has been given for a mixed-use development comprising 400,000 sq ft of commercial space and 690 houses at Hengrove Park, on a former airfield site in the south of the city.

In the Wirral on Merseyside, two new developments are under way. The Gateway is a $19.8 million mixed-use development that will include 160,000 sq ft of offices and industrial units. Stadium Court is a new business park that will contain more than 40,000 sq ft of single-storey units, starting at 3,500 sq ft. Another Merseyside business park will be created on the 28-acre Alchemy site. This strategic development will create 10 new workspace units for small and medium-sized companies.

A $9 million development at the Keys Business Park in Hednesford, near Cannock in the West Midlands, will create 30,000 sq ft of office accommodation and 20,000 sq ft of industrial units. Work at the 3.3-acre development, on the site of a former brickworks, should be complete by autumn 2006. Also in Staffordshire, plans are in train for regeneration projects in the North Staffordshire Regeneration Zone worth $103.5 million. Flagship developments include a $46.8 million business park at Chatterley Valley, an $18 million university quarter in Stoke-on-Trent and a $17.1 million business district on the former Unity House site, a mixed-use development that will include offices, apartments and restaurants.

Richard Barnes (left), Chairman of the North Staffordshire Regeneration Zone,
presents John Edwards, Chief Executive at Advantage West Midlands, with projects for appraisal

In Birmingham, work is under way at the former BBC Pebble Mill site, which is being transformed into a $180 million science and technology park, which will create 387,000 sq ft of R&D facilities for the medical and healthcare industries. The development links into the Central Technology Belt high-tech corridor, which runs from Aston Science Park to Malvern Business Park in Worcestershire.

In Scotland, a former rig yard at Methil in Fife will be the site of a new Energy Park, which is set to become a hub for Scotland’s renewable energy sector. A ten-year masterplan has been drawn up for the project, with work slated to start in January 2006. The 133-acre site, which has access to the sea, will contain up to 500,000 sq ft of space for companies in the oil, gas and renewables sectors. Scotland aims to generate 40 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
 

Environmental initiatives help to combat climate change
New regulations for the disposal of hazardous waste came into force in July. A number of everyday household and business items – such as computer monitors, televisions and fluorescent tubes – have been added to the ‘hazardous’ list of toxic, corrosive and irritant substances, on account of their chemical content. This puts them on a par with materials such as asbestos, waste oils and industrial chemicals and means that many companies will find themselves producing ‘hazardous waste’ for the first time. Businesses will need to be able to describe exactly the content of any waste destined for landfill sites, and will need to notify their premises to the Environment Agency, so that waste can be tracked. Advice is available from the Environment Agency website, at: www. environment-agency.gov.uk/newrulesonwaste.

A business initiative trialled in the West Midlands, whereby waste generated by one business is used to benefit another, is to be rolled out across the UK. The pioneering National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP) is the first such programme in the world to be launched on a national scale. Since its introduction in 2003, it has saved local industry more than $54 million, diverted more than 420,000 tonnes of waste from landfills, generated eight new businesses and created or safeguarded 650 jobs. The national roll-out of NISP has been enabled by the award of $23.4 million in funding under the government’s Business Resource Efficiency and Waste (BREW) programme.

Erin Recyclers, a specialist recycling company based in the Irish Republic, has formed a new company, Foyle Recyclers, in Londonderry, Northern Ireland to dispose of scrap vehicles. The company will employ 16 people at its Londonderry Port site by 2007; the site is the first in Northern Ireland to be designated an authorised treatment site by the Environment and Heritage Service. It will recover and recycle a range of materials, including plastics, batteries, gases, oil, rubber and metal.

Another waste management company, France-based Ecopress, is to create 50 jobs as it locates its UK headquarters at the Questor Business Park in Dartford, Kent. The company hopes to build a manufacturing plant in Kent within 6–9 months to manufacture its environmentally friendly bin lifts, which are currently being made in France.

London’s political and business leaders are co-operating in a new initiative aimed at combating climate change. The newly launched London Climate Change Agency will help to position London as a leader in the fight against global warming, and will also open up business opportunities for overseas companies providing technological solutions that help reduce carbon emissions in the capital. The body is backed by London mayor Ken Livingstone, by the London Development Agency and by a number of leading private-sector companies, including BP, HSBC, Legal & General and Johnson Matthey.

In Manchester, work is progressing on the Co-operative Insurance Society (CIS) tower, which is Europe’s largest vertical photovoltaic project. Three sides of the landmark tower will be covered with a 400ft array containing more than 7,000 solar panels, and these will create 180,000 units of renewable electricity each year. The $9.9 million solar project is the largest ever undertaken in the UK.

Wind turbine manufacturer REpower Systems of Germany has won contracts with Fenland Wind Farms Ltd, based in Eastern England, to supply twenty-two 2MW wind turbines for three separate wind farm projects in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire. REpower UK Ltd, a joint venture between REpower Systems and UK engineering company Peter Brotherhood, based in Peterborough, will be responsible for building the turbines. Fenland Wind Farms was established specifically for this project by EDF Energies Nouvelles, a French producer of green electricity. The three wind parks should be completed by next spring, at a cost of $38.4 million. REpower UK recently completed a 110-metre-high turbine at March in Cambridgeshire, which will generate around 5,000 MW/hours per year, enough to power 1,000 homes.


Around the regions
The Icelandic Baugur Group and Kaupthing Bank are behind a management buy-out that has valued London-based fashion retailer Jane Norman at $208 million. The fast-growing group, which targets young women in the 15–25 age group, has carved a niche for itself in the UK market. It currently operates 39 high street stores and 58 concessions across the UK and Ireland.

Another fashion retailer, the Canadian-based Via Vegan, has chosen London as its headquarters for an expansion into the European market. Its vegan footwear and accessories – marketed under the ‘matt and nat’ brand – are made of high-quality synthetic leather and are already sold in 1,500 outlets across North America and at 60 independent fashion stores in the UK. The company chose London due to its status as the fourth largest fashion centre in the world, with an annual turnover of more than $1 billion.

Barracuda Networks, a US-based provider of firewall and anti-spam technology for corporate e-mail systems, has moved its European HQ to new, larger premises in Basingstoke, South East England. Barracuda established itself in the Berkshire town in July 2004, but since then has shipped more than 2,000 units to customers across Europe and has increased its staffing levels five-fold.

Jaivel, an Indian product design, engineering and manufacturing company, is to set up a sales and marketing office in Loughborough, Leicestershire in the East Midlands. The firm has a number of European customers and has been looking to set up a European base for some time. It will tap into the engineering design expertise of Loughborough University, which has an innovation centre boasting good links between researchers and industry.

Powell Industries of Houston, Texas has acquired Switchgear and Instrumentation (S&I), a division of NG Bailey Organisation, based in Ilkley, Yorkshire and Humber, for $18.4 million. Powell Industries makes equipment and systems for the management of electrical energy and other critical processes, while S&I is a leading supplier to the international oil, gas and petrochemical sectors and to UK-based engineering and contracting firms, with a well-established brand.

Yorkshire is the second most popular location after London for investment in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), according to the Venture Index, a new market indicator of investment activity under the $1.8 million mark. This part of the market – sometimes referred to as ‘the equity gap’ – includes privately owned and government-backed venture capital funds and business angel networks. The index, funded by Yorkshire-based YFM Group, shows that Yorkshire SMEs have attracted a total of $72 million, with levels of investment growing by 9 per cent from 2004 to 2005.

Irish company Quinn Radiators, part of the Quinn Group, has set up a European base at Newport, South Wales, where it has taken over the former LG Philips building. The $239.4 million investment will make the plant one of the biggest in the world, with the capacity to make 4 million compact radiators a year. It will be expanded from 700,000 sq ft to 1 million sq ft, and will include space for R&D activities. The Quinn Group, which employs 4,300 people and last year had sales of more than $1.3 billion, is also involved in the insurance, glass, plastics and hotels sectors. It has plants in Ireland, Belgium and Lancashire in North West England; it is currently completing a plant in Cheshire that will employ 400 workers.

Another Irish company, recruitment consultancy Grafton Recruitment, has chosen Belfast in Northern Ireland as the location for a new financial shared services centre. The centre, known as Payzene, will eventually employ 43 staff to carry out back office functions such as payroll, credit control and the supply of management information.

Online retailer Amazon.co.uk, owned by US-based global company Amazon.com, Inc, is to open a new fulfilment centre in Glenrothes in Fife, its second in Scotland and third in the UK overall. The 200,000 sq ft centre will handle distribution of new product lines such as electronics, photographic and home and garden products, and toys and games. It is expected to create up to 50 full-time and 250 temporary jobs in the run-up to Christmas. The project was assisted by $540,000 in grants from local authorities and the Scottish Parliament.

Lafarge Cement UK, a subsidiary of French construction materials company Lafarge, is to install a $34 million gas scrubbing system at its Dunbar Works in Scotland. The new system should cut sulphur dioxide and particulate emissions by more than 50 per cent. Preparations for the first phase of the project are under way, with gas commissioning equipment to go into operation in early 2006, with the more complex scrubber itself being constructed on site and commissioned in early 2007.

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