News Archive

Manufacturing news

December 2003 - View Entire Month

Raytheon clinches £80m MoD deal

The Paveway IV guided missiles for the RAF are to be built in the UK by US firm Raytheon.
23 Dec 2003 9:47

Record investment in Welsh steel

CORUS is planning to invest over £100 million next year in its Welsh steel plants in Port Talbot and Llanwern.
23 Dec 2003 9:37

Goodyear bad year

Goodyear Dunlop is to transfer production of car tyres from Wolverhampton to other locations in the UK and Europe, with the loss of 400 jobs.
22 Dec 2003 9:47

November 2003 - View Entire Month

Aerospace workers strike

Thousands of workers at Irish aerospace company, Short Brothers, went on strike yesterday over job cuts and working conditions.
27 Nov 2003 9:30

Chemicals grow faster than services

There was at least a glimpse of good news for the hard-pressed manufacturing sector in today's economic outlook report for 2004 from HSBC Bank.
27 Nov 2003 14:22

Government to introduce Pensions Bill

The Government will introduce a Pensions Bill from 2005 to protect workers’ company pensions.
27 Nov 2003 9:31

October 2003 - View Entire Month

British Airways has confirmed that its fleet of seven Concordes will not fly again, apart from the journey that will take them to their final resting place in museums around the world.
31 Oct 2003 10:05

EEF rebrands as 'the manufacturers organisation'

The EEF has confirmed its role as the voice of British manufacturing; the organisation has officially dropped the title ‘Engineering Employers' Federation’ in favour of ‘EEF, the manufacturers organisation.’
31 Oct 2003 9:38

New EU chemicals law needs radical revision

The Confederation of British Industry has criticised EU commissioners for not doing enough to make new chemicals regulations workable for business.
31 Oct 2003 9:34

September 2003 - View Entire Month

Princes buys Dairy Crest juice business

Dairy Crest offloads its chilled juice business for £11 million and reports an expected first quarter loss.
29 Sep 2003 15:02

Flextronics faces massive fraud penalty

One of the world’s largest contract manufacturers, Flextronics International faces a fraud penalty of nearly $1 billion.
26 Sep 2003 11:07

Set-top box sales boost Amstrad

Sir Alan Sugar’s Amstrad Group today reported a boost in pre-tax, saying it had driven sales of digital decoders ("set top boxes”) up and prices down.
25 Sep 2003 7:42

August 2003 - View Entire Month

New chief at Ford Europe

A chief executive from Mazda will head the loss making European operations of Ford.
28 Aug 2003 9:00

Bodycote hit by tough markets

Macclesfield-based Bodycote says cost increases and competition have offset the benefits of its money-saving efforts as it posted a 17 per cent fall in underlying half-year profits to £17.7 million.
27 Aug 2003 15:56

Euro support strong among manufacturers

UK business support for euro wanes, but manufacturers remain keen
27 Aug 2003 9:04

July 2003 - View Entire Month

Hawk jet saves BAE

Hundreds of jobs have been saved at BAE as the Ministry of Defence approves Hawk jet contract.
31 Jul 2003 11:19

ICI to cut 1,400 jobs

This morning ICI announced that 300 of those jobs would be lost in the UK.
31 Jul 2003 10:18

Government to deliver verdict to BAE on Hawk Jet

BAE could suffer more job loses if the Government doesn’t approve its bid for the Hawk jet contract.
30 Jul 2003 11:40

June 2003 - View Entire Month

Alstom off the rails

French owned engineering group Alstom has uncovered 'significantly understated' losses in the accounts of its US transport subsidiary Alstom Transportation Inc.
30 Jun 2003 11:50

BT deal for Marconi

Marconi Corporation announced today that it has been selected to provide broadband services to the BT Group.
30 Jun 2003 10:30

George bows out amid deflation fears

The world’s top bankers are concerned about the possibility of global deflation.
30 Jun 2003 9:29

May 2003 - View Entire Month

Contract of Invensys chief cut

Rick Haythornthwaite, chief executive of the troubled engineering group Invensys, yesterday denied that he was planning an early departure despite having his contract cut from 12 months’ notice to just one month.
30 May 2003 9:26

Ethicon scales down manufacturing operations

Medical equipment company, Ethicon. will scale down its manufacturing operations resulting in the loss of 850 jobs.
30 May 2003 9:25

Job losses at BP’s Scottish plant

Up to 190 jobs will be cut at BP’s Grangemouth complex as part of an ongoing programme of change to secure the plant’s long-term future.
30 May 2003 9:25

April 2003 - View Entire Month

Ross turns to China

Engineering group Ross made pre-tax losses of £808,000 for the year ended 31 December 2002 and will be turning to China as the source of key products, it announced today.
30 Apr 2003 12:51

Whitbread serves up profits hike

The brewer turned hotelier and leisure operator Whitbread announced pre-tax profit growth of 14 per cent this morning (Wednesday, 30 April). The year to 1 March provided its fourth successive period of double-digit earnings growth and a profit of £214m on sales of £1.8bn.
30 Apr 2003 9:24

More steel jobs to go

Troubled steel group Corus today (Tuesday, 29/04) announced that it is to make a further 1150 job cuts as part of its bid to ‘restore market confidence’.
29 Apr 2003 11:14

March 2003 - View Entire Month

Boeing appoints UK president

Boeing has appointed its first UK president in a bid to develop greater presence outside the US.
31 Mar 2003 9:48

Dyson to advise government

James Dyson has been chosen by the Government to give advice on how to boost innovation and productivity.
31 Mar 2003 10:32

Supply chain inefficiency will mean more job cuts - Hewitt

Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Patricia Hewitt will tell the British Chamber of Commerce speech later today (Monday) that supply chain inefficiency will result in more manufacturing job cuts.
31 Mar 2003 12:34

February 2003 - View Entire Month

Mickey Mouse deal for Potteries

Pottery company Dudson has been awarded preferred supplier status by The Walt Disney Company.
28 Feb 2003 10:23

Mixed reactions to employment law proposals

The EEF (Engineering Employers' Federation) has expressed a mixture of relief and disappointment at yesterday’s consultation document, which sets out the Government's thinking on how the Employment Relations Act 1999 should be amended.
28 Feb 2003 9:49

ABB Group reports net losses

Despite a tough year ABB Group has reported a strong performance by its core divisions.
27 Feb 2003 11:54

January 2003 - View Entire Month

Final salary pension schemes closing rapidly

Manufacturers have been closing their final salary pension schemes to both new and existing members at an increasing rate over the last three years, according to a joint survey by the Engineering Employers Federation (EEF) and Aon Consulting.
01 Jan 2003 15:33

Manufacturing news