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Technology spotlight Advances in technology
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MOVINGON
Relocations and expansions across Europe
New Bristol models announced
Iconic British carmaker, Bristol Cars, has announced significant new investments. The first new Bristol car since 2003 will be launched at the Kensington High Street showroom in 2015 in the shape of an all-new 70th anniversary model, codenamed Project Pinnacle.
Since the company was bought in 2011, millions of pounds have been invested in the business to re-establish its place as an iconic British carmaker for the connoisseur motorist. A specialist new Parts, Service and Restoration facility in Brentford, west London was opened this year and has quickly established itself as the leading Bristol centre in the world.
The company also confirms that development work is underway on an all-new flagship Bristol Range-Extended Electric grand tourer. Frazer-Nash Research’s technology will underpin the Range-Extended Electric powertrain of this new design from Bristol Cars. Visit: www.bristolcars.co.uk
WACKER expands test facility for thermal insulation systems in Burghausen Stena and Sonangol launch a world class maritime training facility in Angola
The Munich-based WACKER Group has built a new test facility for certifying modern external thermal insulation composite systems at its Burghausen site. The key features of the facility are two climatic chambers with weathering walls as per EOTA (European Organisation for Technical Approvals) guidelines. They can be used to test exterior insulation systems under a wide variety of climatic conditions. The group invested around €1 million in the expansion project. WACKER is thus extending its range of services and consulting offering for customers and partners, while meeting the globally rising demand for high-quality exterior insulation systems. Visit: www.wacker.com IN August the Centro De Formação Maritima De Angola (CFMA) was officially launched by top management from Sonangol, the Angolan public sector energy company and the Stena Group of Sweden. The CFMA is a world class maritime training facility, the first of its kind in Angola and the most modern maritime campus in Africa. The campus will be an internationally recognised centre of excellence, linked through Stena to leading maritime institutions in Europe and Asia in order to deliver marine education, training and certification to Angolan seafarers in order to satisfy Sonangol’s and Angola’s future requirements for marine expertise.
“The development of the Maritime Training Centre has been a natural step for Stena Bulk in our close relation with Sonangol where education has been one of the fundamental questions since we started our joint venture through Stena Sonangol Suezmax Pool,” says Erik Hånell, CEO Stena Bulk. Visit: www.stenabulk.com
Wavin, the UK’s leading manufacturer of heating, plumbing and drainage products, has announced a multi-million pound investment programme to create two dedicated manufacturing facilities in Doncaster and Chippenham.
The move will see the creation of a dedicated plumbing and heating manufacturing facility in Doncaster for the company’s Hep2O flexible plumbing brand, and an above and below ground plastic drainage manufacturing facility in Chippenham focusing on its Wavin OSMA brand.
“The planned changes to our manufacturing facilities in Doncaster and Chippenham will simplify our supply chain and improve the service offering to our customers,” commented Brent Nicholls, Wavin’s managing director for south-west Europe. Visit: www.wavin.com
Romania’s largest privately owned contract logistics specialist, Tibbett Logistics – part of the UK-based Keswick Enterprises Group – reports that it has nearly quadrupled the scale of its automotive logistics operations in Bucharest over the past five years. Automotive operations now cover some 11,500m2 (124,000 sq ft) of warehousing in the city alone.
Since relocating its automotive logistics operations to a 3000m2 (32,000 sq ft) distribution centre at Equest Park, Bucharest in 2009, Tibbett Logistics has been steadily growing these activities, and they now employ a total of 350 people. This month sees the addition of a further 2000m2 (21,500 sq ft) of warehousing to accommodate new VMI (vendor managed inventory) operations for its worldrenowned automotive component manufacturing customer. These include managing the inbound flow of components from Asian suppliers, receiving and sorting product, quality inspection and the scheduling of deliveries into the client’s Bucharest factory. Visit: www.tibbettlogistics.com
