Scottish Business Briefing - Thursday September 2, 2010

Published on Thursday 2 September 2010 09:22

WELCOME to scotsman.com's Scottish Business Briefing. Every morning we bring you a comprehensive round-up of all news affecting business in Scotland today.

BANKING & INSURANCE

Standard Life axes 600 jobs to secure its future

SCOTLAND has been rocked by another jobs blow after insurance giant Standard Life announced plans to make hundreds of workers redundant at its Edinburgh headquarters (Scotsman). The group is axing 600 posts by the end of 2011, including about 480 in Edinburgh, as it looks to streamline the business.

Read all today's banking news from scotsman.com

ECONOMY

Manufacturing slump sends hopes of recovery spinning

GLOOM spread over Britain's faltering recovery yesterday as new economic data showed that manufacturing slowed more than expected last month as the growth in new orders slackened (Scotsman). Sterling fell on the currency markets as economists said the more downbeat picture made it likelier UK interest rates would stay at historic lows for some time yet.

Read all today's economics news from scotsman.com

ENERGY & UTILITIES

Energy firms face inquiry over claims of mis-selling

TWO Scottish power companies are to be investigated by the energy watchdog amid concerns of mis-selling of contracts to consumers, it was announced yesterday (Scotsman). Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy were named by Ofgem along with npower and EDF Energy as companies who are suspected of failing to comply with new obligations to prevent mis-selling.

Read all today's energy and utilities news from scotsman.com

FOOD, DRINK & AGRICULTURE

Speymalt Whisky profits 'boosted by staycationers'

Speymalt Whisky Distributors, which trades as Gordon & MacPhail, has boosted profits by almost 40% as the global economic downturn inspired burgeoning swathes of Scottish staycationers to purchase its brands in increasing quantities, it has said (Herald). Meanwhile, pre-tax profits climbed to 961,436 at the maker of Benromach whisky for the year to the end of February, compared with 697,897 the year before.

Read all today's food, drink and agriculture news from scotsman.com

INDUSTRY

WS Steele in tie-up with Clear Audio

Glasgow firm WS Steele has struck a joint venture deal with Clear Audio Systems to collaborate on new technologies in a bid to become the leading player in the UK professional audio market (Herald). WS Steele, which was established 70 years ago, is a leading provider of high-end audio-visual systems.

Global success story for CPS as orders rise 18% in six months

RISING business in the food, metals and chemicals industries has helped to swell the order book at Clyde Process Solutions (Scotsman). The Aim-listed conveyor belt and air filter maker yesterday unveiled an 18 per cent rise in orders, which increased from 20.5 million at its year-end in February to 24.2m on 30 July.

Read all today's industry news from scotsman.com

Entrepreneur

Be inspired and communicate with other Scottish entrepreneursat http://entrepreneur.scotsman.com. Features includeupdates from The Scotsman's Executive Editor Bill Jamieson, a diary of forthcoming company announcements and networking events and videoadvice on how to succeed with your new business start-up.