Europe

Since Hungary emerged from Soviet control, Magyar Telekom has been making rapid progress towards sustainability, recently earning an A+ rating from the Global Reporting Initiative. 

After more than four decades of Soviet control, the late 1980s saw a whole swathe of Eastern Bloc countries again become the masters of their own destiny. In Hungary, the transition occurred in 1989 and within just a few months, the country’s infrastructure was being modernised.

Despite what it admits have been challenging economic times, the company’s like-for-like sales have risen 3.7 percent during the three months to 23 September.

Established in the UK since the opening of its first store in 1985, as of 23 September, Domino’s is able to boast ownership of 748 stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Total sales for the group over the aforementioned three month period rose 7.9 percent to £136.4 million.

Whisky combined with driving is generally frowned upon, but in a new initiative experts in Scotland have found an innovative use for distillery by-products.

In what is a world first, a deal has been signed to turn by-products from a Scottish distillery into fuel for cars.

By linking up with Celtic Renewables, a spin-out company from Edinburgh’s Napier University, the Tullibardine distillery in Perthshire plans to use bacteria to feed on the “leftovers” of the whisky making process. This will produce butanol that can be used to fuel vehicles.

One of Turkey’s most important home-grown mining companies is weathering the decline in demand for chromium ore and continuing to supply its customers year-round.

European pharmacy chain Alliance Boots has signed a strategic deal with China’s Nanjing Pharmaceutical Company, it has been announced.

Under the terms of the deal, Alliance Boots will acquire a 12 per cent stake in Nanjing Pharmaceutical for approximately £56 million (RMB560 million). On completion of the transaction, Alliance Boots will be the second largest shareholder in Nanjing Pharmaceutical with board and operational management representation. Nanjing Pharmaceutical Group Limited will continue to be the largest shareholder in the Chinese company.

The AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill has been on trial in the Regional Trauma Unit at the NHS Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, Northern Ireland for the past three months. During that time over two hundred patients have benefited from the unique 'anti-gravity' technology.

By world standards it might be a small operation but one new venture in Turkey is making a big contribution to the local community.

Nature has been very uneven in its distribution of bounties. Take gold, for example. Plenty has been found throughout North and South America. Africa and Australia are similarly blessed. China is by far the largest source of gold; but poor old Europe has been left holding all the low cards.

Trolex, which designs and manufactures monitoring, control and automation equipment for the mining industry, has ambitious plans for growth and diversification. Technical director Stan Curtis talks about the will to innovate.

Ireland’s DCC has agreed to acquire from Statoil Fuel & Retail the trade, fixed assets, stock and goodwill of its industrial LPG business in Sweden and Norway.

As part of the transaction, DCC will enter into long-term LPG supply contracts with Statoil, the international energy company.

Enovos Luxembourg and its project partners Pholpa and NPG Energy have celebrated the opening ceremony for the Biopower Tongeren biogas plant in the province of Limburg, Belgium.

In the presence of the minister of Economy and Innovation Ingrid Lieten, the mayor of Tongeren Patrick Dewael, and the CEO of Enovos Luxembourg Jean Lucius, the plant’s engines were started and will run on average 8,200 hours per year.

The biogas plant is the first of its kind in the Benelux. It uses a pre-fermentation tank that enables a higher biogas production.