March, 2004

News

UK economy is growing strongly
The UK economy picked up strongly towards the end of 2003, with annual growth reaching 2.1 per cent, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This matched the rate estimated by Chancellor Gordon Brown in his Pre-Budget Report, delivered in December. GDP growth quickened to 0.9 per cent in the fourth quarter, faster than the predicted 0.8 per cent that was also the rate achieved in the previous three months. It was the fastest quarterly pace of growth since the first quarter of 2000, when growth reached 1.2 per cent. The volume of retail sales rose by 0.9 per cent in December, taking the annual pace of retail growth to 4 per cent, outstripping the predicted figure of 2.9 per cent. Output in the service sector expanded by 1 per cent.

The manufacturing sector is in its healthiest condition since December 1999, according to the latest purchasing managers’ index by the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS). The index stood at 56 in January, the same as in December, and well above the 50 mark that distinguishes expansion from contraction. New orders were up strongly, from 58 to 60.2 in January, with particularly strong export demand from the US, China and Japan. The manufacturing employment index also rose to its highest level since October 1997, and for the first time in five years stood above 50 for two successive months. In the services sector, the CIPS/Reuters index showed the sharpest increase in business activity since June 1997, registering 59.8 in January compared with 58.5 in December.

The positive trend in manufacturing was confirmed by the latest quarterly survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which showed the annual growth rate in manufacturing output accelerating to about 4 per cent, up from 0.7 per cent in November. The survey of 828 companies found that new orders were growing at their fastest rate since the mid-1990s, with all 12 manufacturing sub-sectors reporting an improvement. The rate of job cuts in the sector also slowed, with manufacturers reporting the smallest fall in employment for almost three years. Optimism in the sector moved into positive territory for the first time in almost two years. Another survey, of 6,800 businesses by the British Chambers of Commerce, also showed improvements in sales and exports in the manufacturing sector.

Overall, the UK’s economy, the fourth largest in the world, appears to be expanding robustly, with strong domestic demand meaning that it has weathered the global economic downturn better than most other major economies. In January, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) described its performance as “enviable”. Its strong performance encouraged the Bank of England to raise its main interest rate in February for the second time in three months, from 3.75 per cent to 4 per cent. The quarter-point rise was widely expected, particularly as the rate of inflation was 1.3 per cent in December, well below the Bank’s target of 2 per cent. The European Central Bank, meanwhile, kept its main rate unchanged at 2 per cent.


Businesses optimistic about upturn in climate
Despite the rise in interest rates, business optimism in the UK continues to improve. The Institute of Directors (IoD), in its Economic Outlook, says that investment intentions have risen sharply over the past year and are still improving, despite further anticipated rate rises. The share of member companies surveyed that were performing well rose from 53 per cent to 62 per cent in the latest quarter, while the balance of those that were more optimistic rose from 35 to 38 per cent. Ninety per cent said that the previous rate rise, to 3.75 per cent, had made no difference to their sales forecasts for 2004, while 92 per cent said it made no difference to their expected employment levels.

The IoD said it believed the economy could be rebalanced with a “modest” rise in interest rates, which are expected to peak at 4.5 per cent by the end of the year. Global economic growth was expected to be much stronger this year, while growth in UK GDP was forecast to be 2.7 per cent in 2004, and 2.6 per cent in 2005.

Venture capitalists too are predicting an improvement in the business climate. The British Venture Capitalist Association (BVCA)’s quarterly Confidence and Attitude Survey found that 63 per cent of member companies were expecting trade to pick up in the next three months, compared with 50 per cent last October.

In another positive sign, rates of pay for freelance IT workers in the finance sector – among the first to be hired or fired as business expands or contracts – have risen for the first time in four years. The rise indicates that City firms are moving to beef up their IT investment, especially in new trading systems, as the recovery gathers pace. The average hourly rate for a contractor rose by 2 per cent to $84 an hour in the second half of last year, according to the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (Atsco), though this was still some way off the 2000 peak of $140 an hour.


UK maintains competitive edge on world stage
The UK was the top destination in Europe for foreign investment in 2003, although the fast-growing economies of eastern Europe are challenging its lead, according to a survey by IBM. The UK saw more jobs created with overseas funds than any other European nation, with 55,000, accounting for 15 per cent of the European total. This saw the UK reclaim the top slot from France, which briefly overhauled it during 2002. However, the Czech Republic gained ground in second place and Russia climbed to fourth, behind Germany.

Worldwide, the US attracts the most foreign investment, while the UK is fourth. The US is becoming even more attractive, with a survey by tax consultants KPMG showing it increasingly closing the gap on other industrialised nations as a cheap place to set up a business. Partly this is a consequence of the falling dollar, though hikes in electricity and telecoms charges in a number of European countries have also improved its relative advantage. Overall, Canada remains the cheapest place to set up a business. Australia, a new entrant to the survey, bumped the UK down from second to third place, closely followed by France, where labour costs have been falling. The US was ranked seventh, while Germany and Japan were the most expensive countries in which to do business. Productivity growth in the US, meanwhile, continues to outstrip Europe and the rest of the world, though the accession in May of 10 new member states to the EU promises to close the gap.

A survey by the World Bank of 130 countries shows that the UK is in the top 10 least regulated nations in the world. The report, Doing Business in 2004: Understanding Regulation, shows that it requires just 18 days to set up a business in the UK, while it takes much longer in other European countries – 45 days in Germany, for example. This kind of light-touch regulation makes it easier for start-ups and tends to foster a greater spirit of entrepreneurship, says the Bank. As well as starting a business, the 230-page report looks at hiring and firing workers, enforcing contracts, obtaining credit and closing a business. It can be viewed at: http://rru.worldbank.org/DoingBusiness/default.aspx.

New estimates of purchasing power parities from the OECD mean that the UK’s productivity performance relative to that of other countries is better than previously thought. Relative to the average of the other G7 countries, GDP per worker in the UK in 2002 was 112.8 on the new estimates, compared with 116.5 previously. Relative productivity measures are based on UK=100, so any fall in the indices means an improvement in performance. The UK’s productivity has improved significantly over the past ten years, though it still remains lower (by about 13 percentage points) than the G7 average. However, it now appears to have around the same level of productivity on a GDP per worker basis as Germany, and it is closing the gap on the US. The revised figures also indicate a better productivity performance for other countries, such as France and Japan.

The UK was the world’s second largest exporter of services in 2002, according to the ONS. The country accounts for 8 per cent of global exports of services and almost 7 per cent of imports, making it also the fourth largest importer of services. In 2002 it recorded a surplus of $28.4 billion, a rise of $4.1 billion from 2001. It recorded surpluses with all continents except Europe, where it had a deficit of $5.4 billion with other European Union states and $2.4 billion with Europe as a whole. The UK’s surplus with the US made up 56 per cent of its overall services surplus, compared with 40 per cent the year before. Exports of services to the US totalled more than $39.2 billion, while imports amounted to $24.3 billion.

All service categories except transportation, travel and government services showed an increase, with the biggest gainer being insurance services, which rose from $7.1 billion to $10.8 billion. Travel imports rose from $49.4 billion in 2001 to $51.8 billion in 2002, accounting for just under 39 per cent of the UK’s total services imports. Exports of travel services totalled $25.4 billion, with visitors from the US accounting for 18 per cent of the total.

Universities creating more wealth than ever before
UK universities are generating more wealth and creating more jobs than ever before, according to the third annual Higher Education Business Interaction (HEBI) survey, published by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). In 2001/02 the amount of turnover produced by spin-off companies increased from $396.4 million to $540 million, and the number of people employed by them increased from 10,500 to 12,000. The amount of income that Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) receive from intellectual property increased by 83 per cent, from $33.7 million to $61.7 million, while the number of new patents filed by them rose by 8 per cent, from 896 to 967. Fifty-four per cent of HEIs now offer incubation or start-up facilities.

The number of spin-off companies formed in 2001/02 was 213, compared with 248 in 2000/01, 203 in 1999/2000 and an average of 70 a year in the previous five years. The spin-off performance of UK universities is considerably better than that of their US counterparts, when adjusted for their size. US universities produce one spin-off company for every $82.3 million of research expenditure, while in the UK the figure is one spin-off every $28 million – almost three times the rate.

The number of international students at universities and other HEIs in the UK has jumped by 23 per cent in just one year. Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show that the total of non-EU students rose to 174,575 in 2002/03, up from around 142,000 the year before. The biggest increases were in the numbers of Chinese and Indian students, which both rose by 80 per cent, to 32,000 and 11,000 respectively. The numbers of students from Nigeria, Ghana and Bangladesh all showed increases of between 40 and 60 per cent. The increase reflects a new determination by the government to recruit international students as a way of building long-term sustainable relations with other countries, to benefit training and trade. Fee-paying international students have also become increasingly attractive to universities in need of additional funding. They now account for about 8 per cent of all higher education students in the UK, compared with 6 per cent in 1996.


Regional training schemes focus on business skills
Yorkshire and Humber is to become the first region in the UK to offer Apple Certified Technical Coordinator (ACTC) training on Mac OS X, the new operating system for Apple Mac computers. RDA Yorkshire Forward is investing $5.2 million over three years to forge partnerships with a number of leading ICT providers – including Apple, Adobe, Cisco, Macromedia, Microsoft and Oracle – and put in place a programme of training and qualifications to boost ICT skills in the region. The programme will be offered through local technology colleges. The region has a $4.1 billion digital industries cluster that by 2012 is expected to grow by more than 50 per cent, and it is keen to address future demand for skilled technicians.

Darlington College of Technology in Darlington in the North East has secured funding for a new $61.7 million campus development. The new campus, on a 16-acre site near the town centre, will comprise a number of different learning complexes run in partnership with local organisations and businesses. Among them will be a university centre delivering higher education courses in partnership with the University of Teesside and the Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College; a technology centre for engineering, construction and computing; and a high-tech media centre that will include design, television and radio studios. Completion is planned for June 2006, with the first students arriving in September of that year.

An innovative centre that marks a new concept in university education has opened in Hastings, on the South Coast. University Centre Hastings (UCH) is a serviced educational centre where different universities can deliver degree courses to students from the local community, nationally and internationally. A number of academic partners, including the universities of Brighton, Sussex and Westminster and the Open University, have worked to provide commercially focused courses, designed in conjunction with local employers. Funding has come from a number of sources, including the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

In Somerset, in the South West, a $19 million skills development that will help 5,000 local businesses has got under way. The Somerset Skills Alliance Project, led by Business Link Somerset, is a partnership of the county’s business and training organisations. Its aims include helping businesses to evaluate the benefits of workforce training and identify training needs through specialist advisers, and simplifying the process of finding the right training provider.


Boost for renewable energy development
The DTI has launched a new campaign to raise awareness of the renewables industry. The campaign – ‘It’s Only Natural’ will seek to inform key decision makers such as planners, investors and the financial community, as well as the wider public, of the potential benefits of renewable energy. The initiative was launched by DTI minister Stephen Timms at the first national Wave and Tidal Energy Conference, held in Bristol in South West England. The government is committed to increasing use of renewable energy sources, and the UK has recently become the most attractive national environment for wind power, according to consultancy Ernst & Young’s renewable energy country attractiveness index. Strong government backing and financial support for renewables saw it pip Spain to the top spot.

Initiatives in the sector include a $935,000 study by the South West Regional Development Agency into the feasibility of an electrical connection off the Atlantic coast of Cornwall that would harness wave power and feed it into the national electricity grid. The connection, known as the Wave Hub, would consist of an underwater cable extending about nine miles out to sea, where it would link with groups of wave power machines. The project would enable power companies to test out the technology before moving into production on a commercial basis. The South West has some of the best resources in the UK for generating wave and tidal energy, including long coastlines and strong marine and electro-hydraulic sectors.

In the North East, work has started on the Charles Parsons Technology Centre, a new $9.4 million electrical power laboratory at the New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) located at Blyth, Northumberland. The new centre will be a key research establishment for linking new and renewable sources of power generation – such as wind and tidal turbines and biomass power stations – into the national grid network.


Initiatives launched across wide range of sectors
Plans to develop a high-tech corridor between Cambridge and Ipswich in Eastern England have moved a step closer after the new Centre for Integrated Photonics at Adastral Park, near Ipswich in Suffolk, secured $1 million in funding from the DTI and a $2.3 million contract from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The East of England Development Agency is committed to helping develop Adastral Park as a site for universities and industry, as part of an emerging corridor linking IT developments in Suffolk with IT, biotechnology and other facilities in the ‘Silicon Fen’ area around Cambridge. The future of the photonics centre, part of a complex being developed at BT’s former research site at Martlesham Heath, is now secure for at least the next two years, according to its director. It hopes to develop applications for photonics in areas beyond telecommunications, including biotechnology and defence.

Also in Cambridge, work has begun on the Babraham Research Campus to create research facilities for early-stage biotechnology and biomedical companies. The eight-year construction plan will provide three BioDevelopment buildings with units ranging in size from 3,000 sq ft to 10,000 sq ft, fully fitted with facilities for molecular biology and chemistry research. The first of the buildings is expected to be completed by the end of this year, ready for occupation in January 2005.

MIDAS, the Manchester Investment and Development Agency Service, has identified seven key business areas that promise to be success stories for the North West’s leading city in 2004. On the list are shared services, customer contact centres, financial services, biotechnology, digital and the creative industries, air transport industries and the food sector. Some of these, such as biotechnology and shared services, were already high on MIDAS’s agenda, but an extensive programme of research covering the whole of the Greater Manchester area has revealed new areas for growth, including food and air transport.

Work has begun on a $7.5 million enterprise park on the outskirts of Shrewsbury in the West Midlands that will be dedicated to the food and drink industry. The 26-acre site at Battlefield Enterprise Park will provide units for sale or lease to companies of all sizes, and will act as a focus for the food and drink sector, which employs 170,000 people in the West Midlands and accounts for 7 per cent of the regional economy. The food and drink sector is also particularly strong in Wales, where new research shows a 1.7 per cent rise in employment (400 jobs) in the 1998-2001 period, compared with a fall of 5.2 per cent over the UK as a whole. The total output of the agri-food industry in Wales in 2001 was $3.8 billion, an increase of 2.6 per cent from 1998, compared with a 0.1 per cent increase nationwide.

A three-year project aimed at improving skills in the advanced engineering sector has been launched in the South West. The $7.5 million project, called ‘A Journey Through Engineering’, will work with schools, employers and individuals to address skills needs and raise the profile of engineering as a career choice. In Cumbria, the Northwest Development Agency has opened a skills centre at the Appleby Training and Heritage Centre aimed at young people interested in developing skills in electrical engineering, part of its ‘Grow Your Future Workforce’ initiative. In Wales, the Engineering Centre for Manufacturing and Materials (ECM2), a multi-million-pound R&D facility set up by the Welsh Development Agency, has been officially opened. Based in Port Talbot on the site of the former Corus R&D laboratories, the centre has already attracted 13 organisations, employing a total of 70 people.


Office rentals set to remain at low levels
The decline in rental levels in the central London office market has bottomed out, but rents are expected to remain at low levels until 2006, according to property consultant Knight Frank. Office vacancies in the City at the end of 2003 were at their highest level since the recession of the early 1990s – 13.7 per cent compared with 9.6 per cent a year earlier – and the situation is expected to remain the same until the summer. Any upturn after that is expected to be slow. There was 15 million sq ft of vacant office space available in the City and 27.5 million sq ft in central London as a whole at the end of the year – an increase of 29 per cent year-on-year – while take-up was just 8.6 million sq ft. Headline rents in the City fell to about $84 per sq ft, compared with $103 per sq ft a year earlier, and were expected to drop to $75 per sq ft by the end of 2004. Prime rents in the West End currently stand at around $122 per sq ft.

Competition among landlords has led to generous incentives, such as three years’ free rent on some 15-year leases. Speculative City developments such as 30 St Mary Axe and 30 Gresham Street remain empty, although no major new speculative developments are expected to come onto the market between the end of this year and 2007. The depressed state of the office market, contrasted with the boom in residential property values, has led some developers to convert office space into residential flats, particularly in the West End. This trend could take 500,000 sq ft of commercial space out of the market, says Knight Frank.

Outside London, take-up in the M25 market increased by 50 per cent in the final quarter of 2003, but was still at its lowest level since records began in 1993. The vacancy rate grew in the fourth quarter, from 9.5 per cent to 9.8 per cent. In Oxfordshire, mergers and consolidations among biotechnology companies, a traditionally strong sector, have seen a slowdown in take-up of business park space. However, active requirements for 750,000 sq ft of office space – from companies such as GE Capital, Exxon Mobil, Syntegra, Bechtel and Sony – has raised hopes among agencies that 2004 will see the beginning of a revival in the Thames Valley region, which has suffered particularly badly from the recent downturn in the dotcom and high-tech sectors.


Planners and developers look to the future
Despite the somewhat gloomy property picture, developers continue to bring new plans to the drawing board. Fifty-two acres of derelict land in the Thames Gateway regeneration area to the east of London, for example, are set to be developed as a business park. The White Hart Triangle scheme will provide more than 1 million sq ft of industrial and office units, together with warehousing and distribution space, at a cost of $150 million. Plans are also afoot for a 500,000 sq ft distribution complex in Maidstone, Kent, in South East England. The scheme involves the redevelopment of 30 acres of land at the New Hythe Industrial Estate, comprising three warehouse buildings. Its hub will be a 100,000 sq ft building that has been pre-sold to food distributor Brakes.

In Leicester in the East Midlands, plans are progressing for a new office core in the centre of the city. A public consultation exercise has seen one proposal emerge as the favoured option; this will see a large new area of office development together with housing and leisure facilities and uninterrupted pedestrian access between the office area, the railway station and the city centre. Work on the site is due to start in 2005. It forms part of a masterplan to regenerate central Leicester, other elements of which include a science and technology park, redevelopment of the city’s waterside area, new housing and an expanded retail core.

Work has begun on a $9 million office project with the potential to create up to 800 new jobs in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria in North West England. The two-storey, 43,000 sq ft contact centre on the Furness Business Park is designed to help revive the fortunes of the former shipbuilding town. Due for completion in the autumn, it will be marketed at a rental of around $15 per sq ft. Also in the North West, a major new office development is planned for Liverpool’s commercial district. City Square, on the corner of Moorfields and Tithebarn Street, will be a speculative seven-storey Grade A development with car parking facilities.

Gloucester, in South West England, is to establish an Urban Regeneration Company (URC). Representatives from local partners and the private sector will sit on the URC board and will plan a comprehensive vision for future development of the city. Their priority will be to revive historic areas of the city while creating a modern urban centre, and a number of schemes are already under consideration.

In South Wales, a huge redevelopment is planned for part of the giant Llanwern steel plant near Newport. Birmingham-based developer St Modwen Properties has signed a deal with steel-maker Corus, the land owner, which is selling off 600 acres of the site after it ceased iron and steel production there in 2001 (although it still employs 2,000 people at the site). The plan involves a mixture of industrial, business and housing development, and will be the biggest of its kind in Wales since the regeneration of Cardiff Bay. St Modwen says it will invest $374 million in the project, but estimates that it will create an end value of $1.4 billion. Depending on planning approvals, work should start by the end of 2005 and will extend over a period of 10 years.

Two new high-specification business units have been completed at St Asaph Business Park in North Wales by Welsh Industrial Partnership, a new partnership formed between the Welsh Development Agency (WDA) and the Royal Bank of Scotland. The Integra development, on a 2.7-acre site, consists of one 16,000 sq ft unit and a larger one of 20,000 sq ft, both suitable for a wide range of business uses. Meanwhile, a new business park is planned for the site of a former World War Two airbase in Flintshire, North Wales. The WDA has invested $7.5 million in infrastructure to kickstart development of the 42-acre Hawarden Business Park, just off the A55. Located adjacent to Airbus’s new A380 wing manufacturing facility and to Hawarden Airport, the development will target a range of investors, including suppliers to the aerospace industry.

North East gets wired for broadband
Every community in the North East of England is to be connected to broadband internet services by March 2005, making it the only region outside London where every telephone exchange has broadband capability. A total of 87 regional telephone exchanges will be upgraded by BT under a $19 million scheme, providing 94.5 per cent of the region’s population with access to ADSL broadband services. RDA One NorthEast is investigating alternative methods of delivery, such as satellite systems, to reach the remaining residents and businesses, located mainly in isolated rural areas.

Countrywide, permanent internet connections made up 22.5 per cent of total subscriptions in December 2003, reflecting the rise in broadband take-up. The figure was up from 21.6 per cent of all subscriptions in November, and compared with 10.8 per cent just a year before. Overall, internet subscriptions in December grew by 6.5 per cent year-on-year, and by 0.8 per cent from November to December.


Overseas investment in Telford grows
Three overseas investors based in Telford, in the West Midlands, have announced plans to expand their operations. French-owned Lyreco, a leading distributor of stationery and office products, is doubling the size of its UK headquarters to 624,000 sq ft, creating 300 new jobs over the next five years and taking its total staffing levels to 900. Stirchley Technical Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Japanese-owned Toyota Tsusho UK Ltd, has expanded and relocated its HQ to a new 85,000 sq ft premises. It has created 50 new jobs over the past year and has plans to create more. Phoenix Contact, one of Germany’s leading manufacturers of connectivity products and automation solutions, has relocated its UK headquarters from Wokingham in Berkshire to Telford, creating a number of new jobs in the process. The company has a global network of subsidiaries in more than 30 countries, with a workforce of over 5,000 people.

Situated at the heart of a major manufacturing region, Telford is also benefiting from a number of infrastructure improvements. The M6 Toll Road, Britain’s first toll motorway, opened in December 2003 and has already reduced journey times through the region. Plans are progressing for a new railfreight terminal in the town with the capacity to handle an initial 200,000-250,000 tonnes of freight a year, and the potential to grow to 750,000 tonnes annually.

More than half of the town’s BT telephone exchanges are now broadband-enabled, and the remainder should make the switch by the summer. A new 32,000 sq ft office building is under construction at the Euston Park development near the town’s railway station, with a further 15,000 sq ft design-and-build opportunity becoming available in June or July. Telford’s International Centre was named ‘Most Improved Venue’ in this year’s prestigious Event Awards, following a $24.3 million refit. The centre, which has nearly 125,000 sq ft of exhibition space, now ranks in the top ten conference and exhibition centres in the UK.

US companies buy a slice of the pie
US food giant Smithfield Foods, Inc has acquired two British food businesses, Ridpath Pek, based in London, and the Norwich Food Company, which operates from locations in Norwich and Spalding in Eastern England. The newly acquired companies have been merged to form Smithfield Foods Ltd. Smithfield, based in Smithfield, Virginia, is the leading supplier of fresh pork and processed meats in the US, as well as the leading producer of hogs. It previously owned 50 per cent of Ridpath Pek, an importer and exporter of a variety of foods, including delicatessen meats, canned meats and canned fruit. The Norwich Food Company was formed in 1993 and has evolved into a marketing and distribution organisation, working with leading poultry and other food brands.

Meanwhile US conglomerate Cargill, based in Minneapolis, has acquired The Duckworth Group (TDG) of Manchester, North West England, a flavour company that supplies the food and beverages industry. Cargill is an international processor and distributor of agricultural, food, financial and industrial products and services. TDG employs 170 people at two locations in the UK and a further 100 at sites in India, South Africa and the Middle East. It exports a third of its turnover to a further 40 countries. It will become part of Cargill’s Food System Design platform, a group of businesses dedicated to formulating integrated food solutions.


Around the regions

HCL BPO, a subsidiary of Indian company HCL Technologies, has employed an extra 75 staff at its call centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, after winning a contract with a major UK retail chain. The move brings the workforce to 861, an increase in staffing levels of 30 per cent over the past year. The Belfast centre, which serves blue chip companies in the UK and the US, employs staff fluent in a wide range of European languages.

Oslo-based software firm Fronter is the first company to move into the Norwegian Collaboration Centre in the Fabriam Centre in North Tyneside, North East England. The new centre is an incubator unit designed to house high-tech Norwegian companies looking to put down permanent roots in the North East. Fronter is seeking to employ local workers to help supply its virtual learning environment software to 100,000 school pupils and teachers across the UK. Two other Norwegian companies are being lined up to move into the new centre, potentially creating dozens of new jobs. The UK is Norway’s single most important export market outside Scandinavia and the country traditionally has strong links with the North East, with 25 Norwegian firms based in the region.

Rosti Technical Plastics (UK), part of the Danish AP Moller group, has invested more than $750,000 in its plant at Nantgarw, near Cardiff in South Wales, increasing the size of the workforce from 100 to 170. The company has been operating at Nantgarw since 1997, where it makes precision-moulded plastic components for a wide range of customers in the automotive, medical equipment, domestic appliance and office furniture sectors. Seeing significant potential for growth in Wales and southern England, it has transferred a large amount of plant and machinery from other Rosti plants to Nantgarw.

Brightmail, an anti-spam software specialist based in San Francisco, has established an office in London to serve as the headquarters of its EMEA operations, as part of a global expansion plan. Iteration Software, based in Mountain View, California, has opened a primary sales office in the capital to serve the same geographic region. Iteration provides real-time reporting, analytics and information delivery products to financial services and manufacturing companies.

Cyclades Corporation, a supplier of data centre management technology based in Fremont, California, has opened a sales office in High Wycombe, South East England. The office will serve users of the company’s incident management solutions in the South East as well as resellers throughout the UK.

Fisher Scientific International, of Hampton, New Hampshire, has acquired Oxoid Group, based in Basingstoke, South East England, for $330 million. Oxoid supplies microbiological culture media and other diagnostic products used in microbiology research laboratories, food testing and biopharmaceutical production and process validation to isolate bacteria and other organisms. The acquisition allows Fisher to offer products and services across the entire life-science spectrum, including tools used by researchers studying DNA, RNA and proteins.

Scientific software company Accelrys, based in Cambridge, Eastern England, is to expand its operations as it prepares to separate from its American parent company Pharmacopeia. The expansion will create 30 new jobs in the first half of the year, and will bring together all of the company’s material science research and development team on a single site. The company develops software with a wide range of applications in the chemicals industry and in nanotechnology.

Road traffic levels in the UK rose by 1.4 per cent between 2002 and 2003, boosted by strong growth in the fourth quarter, according to the latest statistics from the Department for Transport. The estimated annual increase in goods vehicle traffic was 1 per cent and in light van traffic 5 per cent, while car traffic rose by 1 per cent. Levels of motorway traffic remained virtually unchanged.

ABN AMRO Capital, the private equity business of Dutch-based bank ABN AMRO, has acquired Dennis Eagle, a manufacturer of refuse collection vehicles, from UK private equity firm Bridgepoint for around $93 million. Dennis Eagle, based in Warwick in the West Midlands, is the only UK supplier of both chassis and bodies for refuse trucks. It also manufactures fire engine cabs under a long-term agreement with Transbus International.

MGM Mirage, the US gaming and entertainment company, and The British Land Company are to jointly develop a leisure and entertainment complex adjacent to the Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield, Yorkshire and Humber. The development is projected to cost between $364 million and $455 million, and could create up to 4,500 construction jobs and 2,000 leisure-related jobs at the site, which is owned by British Land. Subject to planning approvals and forthcoming UK gaming law reforms, the complex will contain a casino, restaurants, entertainment venues and a hotel and conference centre. MGM Mirage, based in Las Vegas, operates 12 casino resorts in Nevada, Mississippi, Michigan and Australia and has investments in two other resorts in Nevada and New Jersey.

Bermuda-based Bank of NT Butterfield & Son is to acquire UK private bank Leopold Joseph through its subsidiary Bank of Butterfield (UK), in a deal worth $94.5 million. Leopold Joseph, which offers banking, treasury, investment management, offshore company administration and trust services, has headquarters in London and a wholly owned subsidiary in Guernsey. At the end of financial year 2003 it had total assets of $923 million. Bank of Butterfield offers a range of community banking services in Bermuda, Barbados and the Cayman Islands, and is a specialist offshore financial services group, with subsidiary offices in the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey and the UK.

The Europe Bank Ltd subsidiary of US credit card issuer MBNA, based in Wilmington, Delaware, is to buy Premium Credit of Epsom, South East England. Premium Credit, with nearly two million customers, claims to be the UK’s largest independent insurance premium finance company, and makes loans to businesses to help them pay their premiums.

Another company from Reston, Virginia, 4FrontSecurity, has chosen the Surrey Enterprise Hub as its location after winning the US/UK ‘Touchdown’ incubator competition. The competition was organised by UK Trade & Investment and the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, in conjunction with British American Business Inc. The aim of the competition was to identify innovative start-up companies ready to take advantage of a global market at an early point in their development and 4FrontSecurity, which specialises in information security, was selected on account of its business approach and the suitability of its solutions for the UK market. It opted for the Royal Holloway, University of London site because of its strengths in information security; while there, it will enjoy business development and administration support, and access to university facilities. Travelling in the opposite direction to take up space in a US incubator is UK company ProImmune, based in Oxford, South East England.

The Humber Sea Terminal at Killingholme in North Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and Humber, is set to double in size as part of a large-scale investment programme that will create 100 new jobs. Owner the Simon Group plans to invest $46.8 million to build a fourth ro-ro berth at the terminal, with two more berths to follow at a cost of at least $75 million over the next two years.

In Scunthorpe, also in North Lincolnshire, Canadian-owned CCL Industries is to spend $1.9 million to extend the production facilities at its dedicated aerosols plant. The company manufactures, packages and labels aerosol products for some of the world’s leading consumer brands. Partners include companies such as Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Gillette, Nabisco, Schering-Plough and Johnson & Johnson. Headquartered in Toronto, CCL supplies leading consumer product companies in the fields of personal care, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and household and specialty food products. It employs 7,000 people and operates 33 production facilities in North and Central America and in Europe.

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