nternet search engine firm Yahoo is making plenty of international moves as it continues to rebuff a takeover bid by Microsoft. In mid-March, the company announced it would move its European headquarters from London to a site on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland, within 18 months.
The company said the move is “part of our ongoing international business strategy to increase competitiveness, deliver financial results, performance and efficiencies.”
March was a busy month as Yahoo also opened new labs in Haifa, Israel, and Bengalooru (formerly Bangalore), India. The Israel lab will focus on “boiling down complex technology problems into simple solutions to change the game in Web search,” the company said.
“Israel is fertile ground for incredibly talented technologists, researchers and engineers,” said Dr. Ronny Lempel, head of the new lab. Yahoo also operates an R&D center in Tel Aviv.
The new lab in Bengalooru is Yahoo’s first in India. The company says the lab’s objective will be to make the Web more relevant and simple for users and advertisers.
erman conglomerate The Freudenberg Group has opened a new plant in Qingpu, a district of Shanghai. Kluber Lubrication and Chem-Trend, two business units of Freudenberg Chemical Specialties, will produce specialty lubricants and release agents at the facility for the Chinese market.
The €19-million (US$29.3-million) factory is one of Freudenberg Chemical Specialties’ largest and is designed for a maximum annual capacity of nearly 13,000 metric tons.
The plant will serve strong-growth sectors including the textiles, plastics, shoes, tire and wood-processing industries, as well as bearing technology. Freudenberg assesses China as being one of the few global growth markets in the lubricants business. Annual consumption of all types of lubricants in China is between four and 4.5 million metric tons.
Freudenberg is also establishing a new company in Yantai to produce air springs for trucks, buses and trailers, and is installing a new line at its Suzhou facility to produce passenger compartment headliners for nearly all types of automobiles available in China.
Scents in Singapore
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| S. Iswaran, Singapore Minister of State for Trade and Industry, and Deborah Henretta, Group President-Asia, Procter & Gamble, cut the ribbon to officially open P&G’s new perfume factory in Singapore. |
rocter & Gamble is now making perfume at its new 70,000-sq.-ft. (6,500-sq.-m.) manufacturing operation in Singapore, its first perfume factory in Asia.
“Singapore is a natural choice as the home of our first perfume plant in Asia, given its focus on innovation, strong infrastructure and business-friendly environment,” said P&G Group President of Asia Deb Henretta. “With our plant opening, perfume raw materials from around the world will come together in Singapore to create the fragrances that go into market-leading brands consumers trust and love. Our perfume plant in Singapore will be a critical link in our global perfume network. Leveraging Singapore’s status as an innovation hub, our perfume plant will play a significant role in propelling our global business as the incubator for P&G perfumes worldwide.”
The plant will employ 40 perfumers and will supply more than 6.6 million pounds (3 million kilograms) of perfume annually for P&G brands manufactured across Asia.
P&G also operates perfume plants in the U.S., Germany and Mexico.
Zurich for EMEA HQ
colab Inc., a leading provider of cleaning, food safety and health protection products and services for the hospitality, food service, healthcare and industrial markets, plans to establish its EMEA headquarters in Wallisellen, just outside of Zurich. Ecolab will locate its current European management staff, as well as new hires, totaling more than 100 by the end of 2008.
“Zurich was chosen because of its consistent ranking as one of the best business locations in the world, as well as the outstanding quality of life it offers our associates,” said Jim White, Ecolab’s president for EMEA. “We are striving to attract, develop and retain world-class talent consistent with our strong company culture of growth and our global leadership position in the markets we serve.”
St. Paul, Minn.-based Ecolab has been operating in EMEA for more than 60 years and employs about 7,000 in the region.
new €330-million ($508.9-million) terminal section at Frankfurt Airport, aimed at serving the new A380 superjumbo aircraft, opened in March. Fraport AG, the company that operates the airport, says that for the first time anywhere, the cabins of new types of aircraft like the A380 can be boarded simultaneously on two separate levels.
The new terminal provides three docking positions for the A380 superjumbo. All of the new gates will be used exclusively by Lufthansa.
itsubishi Electric Corp. plans to invest 7 billion yen (US$69.5 million) to expand capacity of photovoltaic cells at its Nakatsugawa Works Iida Factory in Nagano Prefecture, and modules at its Nakatsugawa Works Kyoto Factory in Kyoto Prefecture. The move comes in response to a sharp increase in demand for solar power generation systems.
This investment will expand Mitsubishi Electric’s annual photovoltaic production capacity from 150 MW to 220 MW in October 2008. The company aims to establish a production system with an annual capacity of 500 MW by the first quarter of 2013.
Mitsubishi Electric forecast global photovoltaic market growth of 26 percent for the year ending March 31, 2008, and expects demand to continue increasing.
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