Europe

Jaguar Land Rover has announced the creation of 1,000 new jobs at its Halewood Operations manufacturing facility near Liverpool.

The new positions are to support ongoing demand for the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Freelander 2, and will take the workforce at Halewood to almost 4,500.

France Telecom-Orange and Publicis Groupe have partnered with Iris Capital Management to invest in technology companies, it has been announced.

Orange said the partnership would create one of Europe’s premier venture capital investors in the digital economy. Together, Orange and Publicis Groupe will contribute €150 million to the initiative; when added to Iris’ pre-existing funding commitments from investors, this will result in a total investment capacity of more than €300 million.

UK engineering giant GKN is said to be at advanced stages of talks to buy the aerospace unit of Volvo.

According to a report in the UK’s Sunday Times, GKN could pay up to £800 million for Volvo Aero, which manufactures aircraft engines and components.

GKN has plants in Bristol and Cowes on the Isle of Wight. Its aerospace business, which manufactures aircraft components, is its second biggest division, with sales last year of £1.5 billion.

Part of GKN’s strategy is to expand in aerospace.

Dutch construction firm Ballast Nedam has reported a strong performance in its 2011 results, released today.

The company reported operating profits of €19 million, with net profits of €9 million on revenues of €1.4 billion.

Ballast Nedam said it performed well considering the bleak market conditions, increasing competition and price pressure, a situation it said would persist over the coming years.

Excellent results were achieved on several large multi-year projects and in the niche markets, the company said.

Netherlands-based EADS, the owner of Airbus, has today reported better-than-expected results for the full year 2011.

Despite what it called a “volatile macro-economic context”, in 2011 EADS continued to grow and to improve financial performance, particularly thanks to commercial momentum backed by strong air traffic figures.

EADS’ order book in 2011 stood at a record €541 billion; and revenues amounted to €49.1 billion, up seven per cent from a year earlier.

Morano Resources has entered into an option agreement to purchase Zarmadan Resources Corporation and its Rumri gold project in Tajikistan, it has been announced.

The Rumri project is located in the Tavildara region of Tajikistan, about 250 kilometres east of Dushanbe, near the village of Sangvor in the southern Tien Shan gold belt. The belt hosts a number of world-class gold deposits and globally significant gold producers.

Supermarket giant Tesco has announced that it will create 20,000 new jobs in the UK over the next two years.

The jobs will be created through a major investment programme in customer service, refreshing existing stores and opening new ones. 

Starting immediately, Tesco said it will invest significantly in additional staff hours and training to boost the customer experience—including on fresh produce, fresh meat, bakery and counter services.

Kraft Foods has opened a £17 million research and development facility at the home of Cadbury in Birmingham.

Facilities at the Global Centre of Excellence for Chocolate Research and Development in Bournville will include innovation labs, a pilot plant and a development kitchen. The centre will also be used to develop new products for other Kraft brands such as Milka and Toblerone.

The investment comes as the company said it will hire an extra 100 R&D staff in the UK, with 44 of those to be based at Bournville.

Dublin Port Company has unveiled its masterplan for the next 30 years, which includes the construction of a new cruise facility to accommodate over 135,000 passengers and almost 90 cruise liners each season.

The masterplan sets out the framework for the long-term development of Ireland’s largest port. Implementing the plan will cost in excess of €600 millionover the next 30 years, with the Dublin Port Company already committing to investing €110 million over the first five years of the masterplan period.

Britain’s last remaining train factory has been thrown a lifeline with the announcement of the four shortlisted bidders for the Crossrail rolling stock and depot contract.

The Derby-based Bombardier Transportation (UK) factory is up against bids from Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles of Spain; Hitachi Rail Europe; and Germany’s Siemens.

Crossrail will require around 60 new trains, each around 200 metres in length and able to carry up to 1,500 passengers, with key features to be air conditioning and inter-connecting walk-through carriages.