Manufacturing

Technocraft Group is one of the largest exporters of drum closures in the world. But its story doesn’t stop there—the company is constantly seeking new avenues and opportunities, no matter what sector they are in. Jane Bordenave reports.

Chinese regulators have approved Diageo’s acquisition of an additional four per cent stake in Sichuan Chengdu Quanxing Group, a Chinese white spirits company.

The deal is worth £13 million, Diageo said.

Once completed, the four per cent transfer will bring Diageo’s holding in Quanxing to 53 per cent.

Diageo has agreed to facilitate financing for Quanxing of up to approximately £193 million for the development of its main business.

A Chinese company has placed an order to purchase 582 Saab vehicles with a total value of €13 million from Saab Automobile, offering the company a short reprieve from its financial difficulties.

The order will allow the beleaguered car maker to pay its employees’ wages and make partial supplier payments.

Meanwhile, Swedish Automobile and Saab Automobile are continuing discussions with several parties in the hope of securing additional short-term funding to restart production.

Stephan Vitus, project development manager of Icon Yachts, talks to Jayne Flannery about the radical new approach to building the iconic super yachts that the company has pioneered.

Bombardier’s visit to the Paris Air Show has proved fruitful, with large orders placed for both its CSeries and Global Business aircraft.

Most notably, with an order of up to 30 CS300 aircraft, Korean Air will become the new jet’s launch customer in Asia.

Korean Air, South Korea’s flagship airline, signed an agreement to acquire 10 Bombardier CS300 aircraft, with an additional 10 options and 10 purchase rights. The two companies signed a letter of intent following several months of negotiations, and made the announcement at the show today.

Rolls-Royce has signed an agreement to be the exclusive engine provider for an enhanced version of the Airbus A350-1000 aircraft.

Rolls-Royce will supply the new higher thrust version of the Trent XWB, incorporating new high temperature turbine technology, increased engine core size and advanced fan aerodynamics.

Toyota has announced that it expects its North American vehicle production levels to return to 100 percent in September.

Production is recovering earlier than originally anticipated following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Eight of the company’s 12 North American-built models returned to 100 percent production on 6 June.

“After September we will focus on making-up lost production as much as possible,” said Steve St. Angelo, executive vice president of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing, North America.

VF Corporation, the apparel business best known for its Wrangler brand, is to acquire The Timberland Company to create a $10 billion global apparel and footwear powerhouse.

The two companies signed a definitive merger agreement today under which VF will pay Timberland shareholders $43 per share, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $2 billion. The merger agreement was unanimously approved by both companies' boards of directors.

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has agreed to sell its global wire business to Hyosung Corporation, a multinational corporation with substantial tire reinforcement operations, for $50 million.

The business manufactures tire reinforcement wire in Asheboro, North Carolina, and Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg, employing around 600 people.

Goodyear and Hyosung will also sign a multi-year supply agreement upon closing, which is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2011.

Car maker BMW is to invest £500 million in its UK production network, it has been announced.

The company has said it will invest £500 million in UK manufacturing operations over the next three years and has also confirmed that the UK will be a production location for its next generation MINI models.

This takes the company’s investment across all its UK operations to more than £1.5 billion since 2000.