“The pressure to source renewable energy has never been greater”, said

A new survey from the CBI says manufacturers are seeing order books weaken as a result of the continuing instability in the Eurozone.

Symington’s, the Leeds-based food business, has added to its portfolio of leading names by acquiring the Chicken Tonight and Ragu brands.

The purchase of the two names from Unilever by the Leeds-based business is expected to boost its annual gross sales to around £150m.

It follows the recent acquisition of salad crouton brand La Rochelle and the re-introduction of the Campbell’s soup brand to British supermarket shelves by Symington’s.

Other…

With great play being made of manufcturing’s role in helping to ‘rebalance’ the UK economy, the Financial Times has launched a new video series looking at what qualities the companies of the future will need. The series opens with UK manufacturing editor Peter Marsh visiting Xiros, the Leeds-based pioneers in artificial ligaments. Marsh talks to chairman and technical director Bahaa Seedhom and explores the company’s relationship with academia,…

According to reports on TheBusinessDesk.com, the government has invested £50m in the Manufacturing Advisory Service and launched a review into the future of advanced manufacturing in the UK.

The move comes after the government abandoned plans to publish a manufacturing framework in favour of incorporating its plans for the sector in its wider “growth review” which will report next year.

Business minister Mark Prisk…

MORE than 20 new jobs have been created at a Yorkshire school uniform company thanks to a strategy combining traditional garment tailoring and niche internet retailing. Specialising in school uniforms, Perry Uniform, based in Bramley, Leeds, has grown significantly over the past two years and is on target to achieve annual sales of £2.5m.

The Business Desk reports that Perry Uniform recently relocated to Bramley in a £300,000 self-funded…

Blog from Jason Whitworth, partner and manufacturing expert based at BDO in Leeds

There’s no denying the region’s manufacturing businesses have had a tough time, but we are starting to see Yorkshire’s resilient nature pay off, as more companies report signs of improving demand and are looking to the future with greater confidence about prospects for recovery.

We have seen a larger than expected improvement in output and…