News

 

October, 2003

Global downturn sees fall in FDI, though better times ahead
Global flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) are likely to stabilise this year at levels similar to 2002, though a rebound is likely in 2004, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The organisation, launching its World Investment Report 2003, said that last year’s FDI total of $651 billion, down 21 per cent from 2001, was just half the record volume of 2000. The decline was broad-based, with 108 of 195 economies seeing lower inflows in 2002 than in 2001. However, fortunes varied from industry to industry. Consumer pharmaceuticals, electronics and semiconductors, for instance, did reasonably well, while automobiles, metals and machinery and aerospace fared relatively badly.

FDI into the UK shrank from $130 billion in 2000 and $62 billion in 2001 to just $25 billion in 2002. As a result, Britain slid from second place in the world table to seventh, behind Luxembourg, China, France, Germany, the US and the Netherlands. Over the past two years the US has suffered the biggest decline, with annual flows plummeting from $314 billion in 2000 to just $30 billion last year. In 2002, the US and the UK between them accounted for more than half of the 22 per cent fall in FDI recorded by 108 developed countries. This was due largely to a fall-off in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, down from $594 billion globally in 2001 to $370 billion, said the report. Overall, falls in FDI since 2000 have been the sharpest for 30 years, exacerbated by weak stock markets, slow economic growth and a general loss of business confidence. However, when FDI picks up in 2004, UNCTAD expects the US, along with China, to be the biggest beneficiary.

Cumulatively, globalisation has seen stocks of FDI worldwide grow more than 10-fold between 1980 and 2002, to stand at $7,100 billion last year. The UK, with $639 billion of investment, is still number one in Europe, and ranks second in the world only behind the US, which claims $1,351 billion. This compares with $452 billion for Germany and $401 billion for France. The UK increased its accumulated market share of European stock in 2002, from 22.8 per cent to 24.3 per cent.

China, however, is catching up fast. It attracted $52.7 billion in FDI last year, more than any other country, and its stock now totals $448 billion, up from just $25 billion in 1990. If combined with Hong Kong’s $433 billion, China now claims second place in the world behind the US. The other big recipients of FDI in the developing world since 1990 have been Brazil, which saw stocks rise from $37 billion to $236 billion, and Mexico, where accumulated FDI last year totalled $154 billion, up from $22 billion, ranking it 13th in the world.

A survey by management consultants AT Kearney, meanwhile, shows the UK slipping in the rankings of attractive investment locations, as seen by top international executives, from third place to seventh. China retains the top spot it claimed last year in the company’s Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index. Mexico, Poland and India all overtook the UK, reflecting the rising popularity of these emerging markets; in fact, a majority of the top ten destinations were emerging markets, with Russia and Brazil also claiming a slot. Germany took fifth place, the only eurozone country to rank above the UK, while France, Italy, Canada and Australia dropped out of the top ten.

According to AT Kearney, the UK is suffering in a similar way as the US from the fall-out of the technology boom: with large declines in M&A activity, the countries that saw the biggest increases in investment in 1998-2000 are now experiencing the biggest falls. Britain’s continued non-membership of the euro did not seem to be a significant factor in the current downturn, concluded the company.

 

UK economy chalks up stronger performance
The UK’s trade deficit improved sharply in July, as recovering US and eurozone economies boosted demand for exports. Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the goods deficit narrowed from $7.2 billion in June to $5.3 billion, the smallest gap since March and much better than forecast. This raised expectations that the third quarter would show strong overall growth, with economists predicting a 0.7 per cent expansion, from 0.3 in the second quarter. The ONS also published better than expected figures for industrial production, while the National Institute for Economic and Social Research estimated that GDP growth was 0.8 per cent in the three months to August, the strongest in 11 months.

A 5 per cent fall in the value of sterling has helped exporters, according to analysts, though increasing demand from the US has been the main driver in the upturn. Goods exports to countries outside the European Union grew by 15.3 per cent, and the trade surplus with the US rose from $640 million to $960 million. The deficit with the European Union, the main destination for UK exports, narrowed from $2.9 billion to $2.4 billion. Although the deficit remains historically high, commentators predict that it has now peaked, particularly in the light of anticipated stronger growth globally over the next 12 months.

Further evidence that the UK economy has turned a corner comes with an improved performance in the manufacturing sector. Output increased by 0.2 per cent in the three months to July, compared with growth of 0.1 per cent in the three months to June, and by 0.5 per cent between June and July (although this figure was largely due to the volatile electrical and optical equipment sector). Year-on-year, the figure was up by 0.4 per cent, according to the ONS. Other surveys seem to confirm the upturn: the Engineering Employers Federation has published figures showing an increase in output for the first time in two years, while the purchasing manufacturers index shows manufacturing expanding at its fastest rate for 15 months.

There is growth too in the services sector, which expanded in August for the fifth month in a row, and at its fastest rate since early 2001. This, together with higher producer prices from manufacturers, raises the possibility of a rise in inflation and hence higher interest rates. However, this is unlikely to happen at least until the end of the year, especially as overall manufacturing output is still only at 1994 levels.

 

Scottish economy shows signs of recovery
Scotland’s economy showed signs of recovery in August, after more than a year of zero or negative growth. The purchasing managers’ index – which measures output, orders, employment and prices from a sample of 570 companies – hit an 11-month high, with a sustained rise in output and new orders in both services and manufacturing. Companies in the services sector have begun recruiting again, causing the recent contraction in employment to slow to negligible levels. Manufacturing, however, remains muted: the sector has now been in recession for 11 successive quarters. The Scottish economy as a whole shrank by 0.3 per cent in the first three months of this year, making Scotland the worst-performing region of the UK. The latest figures, however, give cause for optimism; analysts believe the figures represent the start of a cyclical improvement and a return to sustainable growth.

Among the English regions, revised data show that the North West has been performing better than previously thought, and that its economy is in fact larger than those of Yorkshire and Humber and the South West. A new and more accurate system employed by the ONS has revised the region’s Gross Value Added (GVA) upwards. In 2001 its economy was worth $140.1 billion, with a GVA per head of 89.9 per cent of the national average. This moves it from ninth place among the 12 English regions up to seventh.

 

Aerospace and biotech are most innovative sectors
The most innovative industry in the UK is the aerospace and defence sector, according to an analysis of 2.8 million patent filings around the world carried out by US technology consultancy CHI Research. It is closely followed by pharmaceuticals and biotechnology; between them the two sectors account for 46 per cent of corporate R&D spending in the UK. Expertise in academic research is broadly spread. The life sciences are generally stronger than the physical sciences, but the UK also has a powerful international presence in certain non-biological areas, such as space science.

CHI used a scoring system that measured the value of patents to determine which industries use R&D skills to the best effect. The total number of UK patents was just 2.8 per cent of the US total, making the UK the seventh most innovative country, behind the US, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, Canada and South Korea. The aerospace industry scored 7.4 per cent of the US figure, followed by pharmaceuticals at 5.5 per cent and chemicals at 4.9 per cent. Semiconductors and medical electronics scored lowest, at 1.1 per cent.

BioCity Nottingham Ltd, which operates the UK’s largest bioscience and healthcare innovation centre, has been awarded $800,000 under the DTI’s Harnessing Genomics Programme. The award will support a range of specialist mentoring and incubation services that will encourage the growth of bioscience and healthcare businesses in the East Midlands. One company to benefit is RegenTec Ltd, an innovative tissue engineering firm and the eighth company to move into BioCity Nottingham’s premises since it opened at the beginning of the year.

The BA Festival of Science, which this year was held at the University of Salford in North West England, will return to the region in 2008, when it will be hosted by Liverpool, that year’s European Capital of Culture. The prestigious event has been the principal forum for debate on topical scientific issues for more than a century (the BA stands for British Association for the Advancement of Science). The 2003 Festival was sponsored by the North West Development Agency (NWDA).


Communications take on an international dimension
German postal operator Deutsche Post looks likely to gain a long-term licence to deliver mail in the UK. Industry regulator Postcomm is currently consulting on whether to award the company a seven-year licence to offer business post services such as bulk mail and document exchange. It already holds a short-term licence for such services. If successful, it will become the fifth private company to gain a long-term permit, along with UK firms Hays, UK Mail and Express Dairies, and TPG of the Netherlands. Such companies are restricted to offering business mail services during the first phase of deregulation of the postal industry, which lasts until 2007, during which time Royal Mail will retain its position as provider of the universal postal service. After that date, however, the whole market will be opened to competition, including domestic mail.

BT Exact, British Telecom’s research base in Suffolk, Eastern England, has played a key role in selecting a single VDSL (very high bit-rate DSL) line code for use in the American broadband market. Line codes define how signals are transmitted within a communications system and can have a key impact on performance. The company, one of two independent test houses chosen for the VDSL tests, put two competing systems to the test: Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), where a single carrier is used to transmit data sequentially, and Discrete Multi-Tone (DMT), where data is sent over a large number of separate carrier systems. After an intensive eight-week programme at the company’s Adastral Park headquarters, the DMT system emerged as a clear winner and has been adopted as the VDSL American National Standard.


DTI issues guidelines on flexible working
There were around 3.8 million business enterprises in the UK at the beginning of 2002, an increase of 1.4 per cent from 2001, according to the Small Business Service, an agency of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). This figure includes all private sector companies, public corporations and nationalised bodies, but excludes government and non-profit organisations. Of the total, a massive 99.1 per cent were small businesses with a maximum of 49 employees. Just 27,000 were medium-sized businesses employing between 50 and 259 people, while 7,000 were large companies with more than 250 workers.

The DTI has issued a new guide informing businesses and their employees on how to implement flexible working rules. Published in partnership with the Trade Union Council and the Confederation of British Industry, the guide covers issues such as health and safety regulations; allowances, taxation and expenses; human resources; and information and security. It also sets out legal requirements and examples of best practice. At least 2.2 million people in the UK already make use of IT to work away from the office; the DTI estimates that an extra 400,000 employees will now work flexible hours or be away from the office each year.


Regions take lead in office development
Builders in London have cut back on speculative development in the face of continuing weak demand from tenants, according to a half-yearly survey by DTZ Research. Speculative office starts fell by a third between February and August, from 800,000 sq ft to 500,000 sq ft. This compares with a 15 per cent fall in the previous six months and represents the fourth successive survey in which planned development has fallen. The report examined 155 office schemes of more than 25,000 sq ft, totalling 36.4 million sq ft, across London. Some 12.5 million sq ft is currently under construction in the capital, compared with 15.1 million sq ft in February, and 5.2 million sq ft of this is unlet. In the six months to July, just under 1 million sq ft of speculative space was let, compared with 1.2 million sq ft in the previous six-month period.

Many schemes are still on the drawing board, however. For example, planning permission has been granted for a 1.5 million sq ft, mixed-use scheme on a 12-acre site at Granite Wharf, on the west side of the Greenwich peninsula in south-east London. The project, which has a 1,000-ft river frontage and borders the Millennium Dome site, will include offices, shops, housing and a hotel. Outside London, the East of England Development Agency has provided $27 million of funding for new business facilities in the region. Projects include the Butterfield Technology Village and an innovation centre for high-tech businesses in Luton, a 40,000 sq ft innovation centre in Peterborough and a new business park in Hertford.

In the South East, work has begun on the $5.6 million Gosport Business Centre at Frater Gate Business Park in Gosport, Hampshire. The 29,000 sq ft centre, due for completion next April, will provide 63 self-contained office units. In Cornwall, in the South West, clearance work has begun for the second phase of a major industrial development at St Columb Major. A first-phase 50,000 sq ft unit is occupied by books and music retailer Borders; the second phase will see the construction of two 20,000 sq ft units. In Leominster in Herefordshire, in the West Midlands, work is under way on the 29-acre Leominster Enterprise Park. The $32 million development will see four phases built in plots from 0.5 acres upwards, for use as light industrial and commercial units.

In the North West, the first phase of Liverpool Science Park is set to get under way; the development will create 43,750 sq ft of new workspace for high-tech and knowledge-based businesses. At Daresbury in Cheshire, plans are taking shape for a $45 million science park adjacent to the world-renowned Daresbury Laboratory site. At Newton Aycliffe in County Durham, work has begun on a 70,000 sq ft industrial and distribution development at Maple Way on the Aycliffe Industrial Park. And in Barrow in Cumbria, the derelict 17.5-acre site of a former ironworks is to be developed as an extension to the Furness Business Park, creating new high-quality space for local businesses.


Business expansion takes off in Wales
Four leading Indian companies from the computer technology and bioscience sectors are to set up operations in Wales, initially employing 300 people. The four are GTL Limited, India’s leading telecoms infrastructure company, BPL Telecom, its top provider of mobile technology, financial software specialist Infrasoft Technologies and Elan, which is developing laser technology for heart surgery. Up to 30 further companies from the same sectors have expressed interest in setting up operations in Wales, to serve as a base for expansion into Europe.

Two leading aerospace companies have also announced substantial investment in the principality. Nordam Europe Ltd, which specialises in aircraft overhaul and repair, is to extend its European manufacturing facility at Blackwood, near Caerphilly, doubling its production staff and creating 220 new jobs as part of a $13.4 million investment. Britax Aircraft Seating meanwhile plans to create nearly 200 skilled jobs by setting up a new manufacturing plant alongside its existing seat-making operation at nearby Cwmbran.

In South Wales, the $7 million Digital Technium, a high-tech building aimed at fostering development of the digital industries in Wales, has officially opened for business on the campus of Swansea University. To date, 27 companies have registered expressions of interest and 10 have made firm applications for tenancy; most are local, though some are from as far afield as India and the US. In Llanelli, a prestigious office development overlooking the town’s North Dock is set to create 30,000 sq ft of new office space. The development, on a 1.25-acre site, promises to create up to 200 new jobs. Meanwhile a new technology park development has been given planning approval near Cardigan in west Wales. Parc Aberporth will be developed in two phases, and has the potential to create up to 230 new jobs.

More than $12 million has been earmarked to develop new business sites and premises in mid Wales. Some 27 new projects are planned for rural areas of Powys, Ceredigion and Meirionnydd, with the potential to sustain more than 345 jobs between them. A new $3.8 million business centre has opened at Deeside Industrial Park in Flintshire, North Wales. The Evans Easyspace centre offers 13 office units and 17 workshops for small businesses, with a combined floorspace of 39,000 sq ft. Twenty units have already been let.


Transport links to grow for trains, planes and automobiles
The German-owned Volkswagen Group UK, Britain’s biggest car importer, has opened a new $9 million car import centre at the Port of Tyne in North East England. The centre, which will serve as the company’s northern import base, offers a secure compound for 8,000 cars and will handle some 60,000 vehicles annually, around 20 per cent of the group’s imports into the UK. Volkswagen needs the extra capacity to handle growing sales of Audi, Seat, Skoda and Volkswagen cars and commercial vehicles, and was attracted to the area by the fact that the River Tyne is able to handle very large vessels. The Tyne port, the UK’s 20th biggest in terms of tonnage, has been in use since Roman times but in more modern years served as a major coal handling centre. Its transition from coal to cars began in 1994, when it won a contract to handle Nissan’s exports from its Sunderland car plant.

Continental Airlines of the US is to launch the first direct transatlantic flights from Edinburgh in Scotland, with the introduction next June of daily scheduled services to Newark in New Jersey. The announcement adds to the rapid expansion of services from Scottish airports, which have roughly trebled during the last year, partly due to a $10.8 million development funded provided by the Scottish Executive. So far 12 new scheduled routes have opened under the scheme, linking Edinburgh and Glasgow’s Prestwick Airport with destinations across Europe. A number of low-cost airlines have also begun operations, and international passenger traffic has seen a rapid expansion, up 8.6 per cent year-on-year in July at Edinburgh and growing by 13 per cent annually at Prestwick.

On a more down-to-earth note, the number of passenger journeys made on light rail systems in England increased by 6.9 per cent in the year to March, to 136.2 million. Most of the growth in the past few years has been in London, with the opening of the Croydon Tramlink and extensions to the Docklands Light Railway (DLR). A DLR extension to London City Airport is currently under construction, and growth is expected to continue. There are six modern light rail systems currently in operation in England: the 27km DLR and 28km Croydon Tramlink, the Manchester Metrolink (39km), the Midland Metro between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in the West Midlands (20km), the Stagecoach Supertram in Sheffield (29km) and the Tyne and Wear Metro, which runs between Newcastle and Sunderland in the North East (78km). A new 14km system is due to open next month in Nottingham in the East Midlands.


East Midlands aims for international recognition
A new engineering research and training centre is to be set up in the East Midlands to provide the skills needed by high-tech manufacturing companies in the region. The Systems Engineering Innovation Centre (SEIC), based at Holywell Park on the campus of the University of Loughborough, is a collaboration between the university, BAE Systems and local RDA East Midlands Development Agency (emda). BAE will base 25 senior engineers at an R&D centre within the facility, where they will work with academics in systems engineering. By 2007 the East Midlands aims to have 15 per cent of its workforce employed in systems engineering, compared with 5 per cent at present.

The East Midlands is also to get its first Regional Centre of Technology Excellence (RCTE), with the setting up of a facility at Edwinstowe House Business Innovation Centre in Edwinstowe, North Nottinghamshire. The centre is intended to support technological development and business innovation throughout the region, with an emphasis on information and communication technology (ICT). Among other activities, it will demonstrate to local companies the benefits of ICT technologies, including broadband internet; will individually review companies’ ICT effectiveness; and will suggest appropriate technologies to help them improve their performance.

In other sectors, polymer manufacturing companies in the region have banded together to create a network of industry-focused training and development resource centres, based at local schools and colleges. An online ‘e-college’ has also been set up, at: www.learnplastics.com. In the aerospace sector, a new industry association has been established to promote the interests of local firms. More information on the Midlands Aerospace alliance at: www.midlandsaerospace.org.uk.

Yet another new initiative aims to raise the profile of the East Midlands on the global stage. East Midlands International Connections (EMIC), developed by emda, brings together organisations in the region which have an international outlook, including East Midlands Airport, Trade Partners UK and the East Midlands Universities Association. EMIC will focus on the development of international trade and inward investment, tourism, higher education, sport, culture and the arts. The organisation will play an important role in realising emda’s ambition of making the East Midlands one of Europe’s top 20 regions by 2010.


Fast cars and high rollers a good bet for investors
The importance of motorsport to the UK economy is underlined by a new report from the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA), which shows that the 2002 British round of the Formula One World Championship, held at the Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire in the East Midlands, attracted nearly $56 million in expenditure and maintained the equivalent of around 1,150 full-time jobs. Much of this was concentrated within a 50-mile radius of Silverstone. Visitor expenditure was estimated at $16 million on tickets for the Grand Prix, $10 million on food, drink and merchandise on-site and $8.2 million on accommodation, food and drink and other items outside Silverstone. In addition to its direct economic benefits, the British Grand Prix does a valuable job in showcasing the UK’s engineering expertise and resources in high-performance motorsports, and in presenting the UK in a positive light to a worldwide television audience of 300 million viewers, concludes the report.

Meanwhile changes to UK gaming legislation promise to open up a new market for overseas casino operators. A delegation of UK gaming experts, led by inward investment agency London First Centre, visited September’s Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas to make a pitch to potential investors. London has a diverse gambling scene with a long tradition centred on horse racing and tightly regulated high-end casinos. However, the government is currently undertaking a review that will result in new legislation designed to simplify regulation and extend choice. This promises to create a new marketplace, involving gaming-led entertainment centres, similar to the resort-style venues found in Las Vegas.

Such centres open up gaming to a much larger consumer market and London, one of the world’s premier tourist cities, is hoping for rapid growth in the sector. Hospitality and leisure are already among its largest industries, generating more than $14 billion in 2002 from staying visitors – 8 per cent of the city’s GDP – and employing 275,000 people. Day visitors spent another $7.3 billion. London dominates the UK tourism industry: in 2002 it had 28 million visitors, 12 million from overseas, equating to 11 million nights spent. It accounted for 48.6 per cent of all visitors to the UK and 50.2 per cent of all expenditure. In such an environment, expansion of the capital’s gaming industry looks set to be a surefire winner.


Around the regions
Cinram of Canada, one of the world’s biggest independent providers of pre-recorded multimedia products, has relocated its DVD production for the UK market from Normandy in France to Ipswich in Suffolk, Eastern England. The DVD centre will be based at the company’s existing 85,000 sq ft VHS duplication plant, which has an integrated distribution facility. It will initially have six manufacturing lines, with a capacity of up to 43 million DVDs a year, though the company plans to add extra capacity as the UK market grows. Cinram is expanding in Europe. It recorded a 62 per cent year-on-year increase in DVD revenue in the first quarter of 2003, and recently acquired AOL Time Warner’s CD and DVD manufacturing operations for $1 billion.

Another Canadian firm, healthcare software specialist ClinSaver Software Ltd, has opened its first UK base in Peterborough, also in Eastern England. Based in Toronto, the company provides consultancy services and dedicated software for organisations in the healthcare sector. A key factor in the company’s decision to locate in Peterborough was its close collaboration with Peterborough Hospital Trust, which has been piloting its software systems. It will use the new office as a springboard for expansion into Europe.

Perkins Foods, a leading European manufacturer of chilled, fresh and frozen foods, is to invest $12 million in a new plant at Waterside Park in Wombwell, Barnsley, Yorkshire and Humber. Around 100 new jobs will be created when the site becomes operational in November, with further expansion planned for the next two years. The plant will be part of Perkins subsidiary Fresh-Pak Chilled Foods Ltd, and initially will produce egg-based products. Work has begun on upgrading the 68,000 sq ft facility to include the latest manufacturing technology.

Also in Barnsley, a new service company has been set up with the aid of the South Yorkshire Investment Fund, an initiative backed by European funding which helps small and medium businesses to finance development. Cutting Technologies, based at Zenith Park, uses laser technology to cut a range of materials, including wood, steel and plastic, for use in anything from wheelbarrows to nuclear power plants. The company used a $56,000 loan to help finance the purchase of a state-of-the-art laser cutting machine. It operates as a sub-contractor, working for a variety of larger companies, ranging from engineering firms to major high street names.

John Sarrington, Investment Manager who led the deal and centre of picture, is given a tour of the Cutting Technologies factory by directors Martin Cook and Barry Proctor.

MIDAS (Manchester Investment and Development Agency Service) is to extend its remit to help stimulate investment in the whole of the Greater Manchester area. Currently assisting companies in the Manchester, Salford, Tameside and Trafford areas, the agency will now also operate in Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport and Wigan. It offers an extensive package of advice and assistance for companies interested in locating their business in the Greater Manchester conurbation.

Irish glass manufacturer Quinn Glass has begun construction of an advanced production and distribution facility on a 205-acre site at Ince in Cheshire, North West England. The plant will provide a comprehensive glass packaging, filling and distribution service for the drinks industry, and will be one a handful of sites worldwide where bottles can be manufactured and filled on a single site. It will include one of the largest automated warehouses in Europe, capable of storing 137,000 pallets of filled and unfilled glass containers. Capital investment in the site will be around $192 million, and the development will create more than 300 jobs by 2007. Local agencies will support the company by developing a wide-ranging training company to equip local people with the skills required to work at the plant.

Also in Cheshire, TJ|H2b Analytical Services of Sacramento, California has opened an international laboratory centre at Capenhurst, in collaboration with power asset management specialist EA Technology of the UK. TJ|H2b specialises in analysing cooling and insulating oil for equipment used by electricity generators, network operators and large power consumers. The lab, which currently employs nine people, will double in size over the next few years, and satellite facilities are planned in mainland Europe. The company will market its services in the UK, the EMEA region and in the now independent states of the former Soviet Union.

ARRK Product Development Group, a subsidiary of ARRK Corporation of Japan, has expanded its tooling and moulding capacity at its plant on Teesside in North East England. In addition to substantial investment in machine tools over the summer, the company plans to install ten new injection moulding machines, ranging in capacity from 25 to 150 tonnes.

Italian-owned gasket manufacturer Ilpea is moving to new premises in Skelton in East Cleveland, North East England and trebling the size of its workforce. The company will recruit 74 new employees to work at its 10,800 sq ft facility, taking the total workforce to 120. The company manufactures rubber and plastic gaskets for white goods and kitchen appliances such as fridges, ovens, washing machines and dryers, and has around 4,000 employees worldwide. It bought the Skelton factory from Swedish company Trelleborg in 2002, joining a growing number of Italian firms involved in the UK white goods sector.

US company Coherent Inc has chosen its UK subsidiary Coherent Scotland, based at the West of Scotland Science Park near Glasgow, as the site for its OEM and scientific solid-state laser production. Its new 32,000 sq ft design and manufacturing centre includes a 4,000 sq ft clean room for the production of solid-state lasers. Coherent Scotland produces laser systems for a range of industries worldwide, including semiconductor manufacturing, CD and DVD production, biomedical imaging, materials processing and scientific R&D. The new facility will be capable of producing laser systems worth up to $80 million each year, and in the next three to four years the company expects new products to generate sales of $40 million per annum.

Superior Energy Services of Harvey, Louisiana has acquired Premier Oilfield Services of Aberdeen in Scotland for $31.5 million. Superior provides a range of specialised oilfield services and equipment, mainly to companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Coast region. Premier rents tubular handling equipment, drill pipe, tubing, downhole tools and other products to companies operating in the North Sea, North Africa, Europe and the Middle East regions.

Diageo plc, the international drinks group, has opened a new $65 million production facility at Mallusk in Northern Ireland. The 100,000 sq ft Diageo Baileys Global Supply facility will manufacture, bottle and pack Baileys cream liqueur for the global market. Diageo already employs 50 people at the site and hopes to double the workforce over the next three years.

Field Group, a subsidiary of the Chesapeake Corporation, based in Richmond, Virginia, has completed a $16 million refurbishment of its packaging facility at East Kilbride in Scotland. One of Europe’s leading packing manufacturers, Field’s key markets include alcoholic drinks, confectionery and household goods. The layout of its production areas has been radically altered to reflect the latest manufacturing practices. New machinery has been installed, new handling systems have been introduced to automate workflow and extensive employee training has been undertaken.

Construction equipment manufacturer JCB is to launch one of the first new diesel engines to be entirely designed and built in the UK for over a decade. The firm, based in Staffordshire in the West Midlands, says that signs of recovery in its export markets have encouraged it to commit $80 million to replace engines bought from foreign-owned companies. The investment, though small by global standards, reflects growing confidence on the part of one of the country’s largest privately-owned firms and in the engineering sector as a whole.

Imtech of the Netherlands, a technical service provider which specialises in ICT and electrical and mechanical engineering, has acquired UK building services and water engineering group Meica, based in South East England. The acquisition will allow Imtech to focus on Meica’s market segments of technical services in the electrical and mechanical engineering sector and infrastructure solutions, particularly water purification. Imtech has 13,000 employees and an annual turnover of $2.3 billion.

Intertec Systems LLC of Dubai has set up a joint venture with Zorn Associates of London to develop and market its software and service products in Europe. These include AIMS, an airport management system, and hotel, travel, enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management products. The new company, Intertec Business Systems Ltd, will be based in Enfield in north London.

ICX Global, based in Lone Tree, Colorado, has opened an international office in Kingston-upon-Thames in South East England. The company designs and manufactures remote controls for OEM suppliers, the subscription broadcast market, home audio-video equipment and interactive applications.

Accountant PricewaterhouseCoopers reports that the London market for big commercial insurance risks has largely returned to profitability and capital lost over the past year has been replenished. As a result, insurance rates in a number of business classes – including aviation and property – are beginning to soften.

The municipality of Rovaniemi in northern Finland has confirmed its attendance at Intertech 2003, the high-technology networking event taking place in Durham, North East England on 13-14 October. The municipality is keen to establish links with technology parks, especially those dealing with creative content, animation and digital media. It is developing its own Santa’s Technology Park and so is keen to meet any other companies whose business has a Christmas-related theme. So far, 179 delegations have signed up for the event and nearly 900 one-to-one meetings have been requested. More information on: http://www.Intertech2003.co.uk.

The UK Science Parks Association (UKSPA) is to host a one-day conference on 16 October at Wolverhampton Science Park in the West Midlands. The conference will present the findings of research commissioned into the past and future contribution of the science park movement to the UK economy. Building on previous research, the report will look at support structures; benchmarking performance data across a representative sample of firms; how location influences the success of a science park; and how the graduation of high-tech firms from incubators to science parks can be achieved. A variety of guest speakers will comment on the findings and lead debate. For more information, e-mail: chris.anne@btconnect.com.

 

To find out about business exhibitions and events happening around the United Kingdom click on the Events button.