Manufacturing
Feed£3m "golden hello" for Unilever CFO
Adrian Holliday
Mar 7th 2010
Filed under: Company, Banking , Manufacturing
How pleasant it is to say hello when your name is Jean-Marc Huët. The new chief financial officer of Unilever received, it is now revealed, a "golden hello" worth more than £3m in February.The deal is made up of cash and shares – none of which is performance related. Huët's own salary will be £680,000 with the potential to earn up to £1m a year.
Green cars dominate Geneva show
Adrian Holliday
Mar 2nd 2010
Filed under: Company, Manufacturing
It's one of the busiest and greenest Geneva motor shows in years. The wraps are off more than 30 world premieres – a complete tsunami of new models breaching the shores of the city's eponymous lake.Troubled Toyota will reveal its new petro-electric hybrid. Aston Martin has shown off its new Cygnet. Then there's Porsche's new 918 Spyder hybrid (think a 500bhp V8 tied to just 70g/km of CO2 – a staggering achievement).
Mandelson urges revamped M&A rules
Adrian Holliday
Mar 2nd 2010
Filed under: Company, Economy, Job Focus, Banking , Manufacturing
Business secretary Lord Mandelson wants new takeover rules after the recent Cadbury-Kraft debacle which saw many jobs lost - despite promises from Kraft that the UK workforce would not be at risk.In his Mansion House address, Mandelson urged company directors to behave more like stewards than "auctioneers". It sounds increasingly like a interventionist hard-left approach of yesteryear.
Jaguar Land Rover leaps back into profit
Adrian Holliday
Feb 27th 2010
Filed under: Company, Loans, Technology, Manufacturing, Creative industries
Jaguar Land Rover made £55m in profits in the last quarter of 2009. A brace of new models helped buoy performance with sales leaping almost 70% compared to a year earlier.Jaguar Land Rover sold 165,000 models with considerable new growth coming from just about everywhere: Russia, the US, China as well as Europe: a stunning recovery in a very tough manufacturing and sales environment.
Europe: a long hot angry summer ahead
Adrian Holliday
Feb 25th 2010
Filed under: Debt, Economy, Manufacturing
We resist. That's the message many public sector workers across (mostly) Southern Europe are sending as governments slash wages and spending. From Italy to Greece, from Spain to Portugal.But the contagion has not just infected Club Med. Unrest is spreading to France and Germany. In France, President Sarkozy wants real public sector change (and there's plenty to change, not to mention cut). Across the border, Lufthansa pilots have threatened to walk off the job.
More middle managers prepare to quit
Adrian Holliday
Feb 23rd 2010
Filed under: Economy, Job Focus, Banking , Public Services, Manufacturing
For middle managers, the stress appears too much. New research from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) claims 225,600 managers quit their jobs voluntarily in the last year – a modest rise in real terms compared to 2008. The figures are surprising, especially in a recession when sackings and redundancies are common. The CMI numbers also suggest wide regional differences in pay.
Investors develop metallic taste
Helen Fowler
Feb 22nd 2010
Filed under: Investing, Manufacturing
You will find it in your mobile phone. You can find it in the Congo and Zambia. You will find it in hard-wearing alloys in the aerospace industry. But, up until today, you would not find cobalt trading on an exchange anywhere in the world.That changed this morning. The London Metal Exchange (LME) launched the world's first cobalt futures contracts. The move is designed to capture rising investor interest in commodities more generally.
Insurer revealed Toyota trouble in 2004
Chris Wheal
Feb 20th 2010
Filed under: Insurance, News , Manufacturing
The largest motor (auto) insurer in the US, State Farm, warned regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) about accidents involving Toyota cars as early as 2004, Reuters reports.The insurer initially said it contacted the NHSTA in late 2007. But prompted by two government committees demanding information, State Farm reviewed its records and found that it contacted safety regulators first in 2004. This is bad news for the regulators and Toyota.
Time for government to back Corus
David Burrows
Feb 19th 2010
Filed under: Company, Manufacturing
It is a sad state of affairs at Corus. Closure of the Teeside plant looks inevitable and though it seemed at one time that a suitor could be found, as things stand there is nothing close to a deal on the table.
The finger has already been pointed at the government as that is the easy option in all cases like this.
Toyota trouble: America wants answers
Adrian Holliday
Feb 17th 2010
Filed under: Company, News , Technology, Manufacturing, Retail
Did Toyota respond quickly enough to safety worries? That's the question US car safety watchdog The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) wants an answer to.The NHTSA wants Toyota to tell them when and how it learnt about the defects to around 6m US cars. The NHTSA is invoking federal law, which demands carmakers notify it and organize a recall within five days of discovering faults.
M&A hots up but who's buying who?
David Burrows
Feb 17th 2010
Filed under: Company, Markets, Manufacturing
Mergers and acquisitions frequently increase in number during periods of economic recovery but in the case of VT Group it is hard to fathom who is buying who.
On the one hand engineering heavyweight Babcock International has made an approach to takeover its rival VT (the former Vosper Thornycroft business) for just over £1bn.
On the other hand, the VT board has dismissed this offer and continues to pursue its own takeover target in the shape of Mouchel.
Japan surprises with better GDP figures
Adrian Holliday
Feb 15th 2010
Filed under: Debt, Economy, Financial Crisis, Banking , Manufacturing
The Japanese economy grew 1.1% in the last quarter of 2009. That's rather better than the UK's own 0.1% GDP slow-crawl admittedly.The new figures means Japan hangs onto its World's Second Biggest Economy tag. Which means China may have to wait a little longer for claiming the title proper for itself. So Japan – at last – is on the mend?
'Efficient' Vauxhall gets GM jobs boost
Adrian Holliday
Feb 10th 2010
Filed under: Economy, Manufacturing
Liverpool and Luton should be cheering. GM says only a fraction of Vauxhall jobs will be lost in the next year. GM is still set to slash around 500 UK jobs – but the total cull is much lower than feared. There's also a fillip to UK workers: an extra production shift at Ellesmere Port is now on the cards for next year, and a welcome boost to the UK's ailing manufacturing base.
Kraft reneges on Somerdale pledge
David Burrows
Feb 10th 2010
Filed under: Company, News , Manufacturing
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Unions and Cadbury workers are incensed that US food giant Kraft has reneged on a promise to keep the Cadbury factory in Somerdale near Bristol open. Just a matter of weeks after Cadbury accepted a £11.7bn takeover offer from Kraft, the US food company has confirmed it will now close the Somerdale operation.
According to the union Unite, this represents a pre-meditated about-turn from Kraft.
Toyota could face 'terminal damage'
Adrian Holliday
Feb 9th 2010
Filed under: Financial Crisis, Energy, Manufacturing
It's amazing the damage an errant floor mat can cause. Or a software glitch. As Toyota knows to its huge cost: it's now having to recall 436,000 of its Prius models because of new safety worries.Bad news should come out all at once. Not in dribbles. That's the view of David Haigh, boss of Brand Finance on Toyota's "inept" handling of its safety recalls across its product range.
Economy doing worse than suspected?
Coutts AIG bond row may end in court
