PART ONE
·Look at the statements below and description of some of
the Europe’s fast growing companies on the opposite page.
·Which company (A,
B, C, D or E) does each statement 1-8 refer to
·For each statement 1-8, mark
one letter (A, B, C, D or E ) on your Answer Sheet.
·You will need to use
some of these letters more than once.
A
City Refrigeration
In 1985, Willie Haughey and his wife
started a small business providing pubs in northeast England and Scotland with
refrigeration and technical services, investing about $100,000 that Willie had
made by working for a Carder air-conditioning branch in file scorching Persian
Gulf states. Almost two decades latex, the two are running a major company with
blue-chip clients from their base hi Glasgow. Willie, who serves as executive
chairman, says that City Refrigeration Holdings Ltd., with close to 10, 500
employees, will bring in some
360 million in revenues this year. Earnings
before interest and taxes will be an estimated
11 million.
B
New
Wave
New Wave Group is riding high these days. The Swedish clothing
company sells a mix of moderately priced casual lines, workmen’s gear, and
sportswear in 12 countries from China to Switzerland. Sales have been increasing
at a 41% annual clip since 1990, and the company is on course to do the same
this year. In just the first half of 2004, sales were up 20%, to
117.8 million, while profits
grew by the same percentage, to
9.3 million. "They’ve been quite successful at
erecting new markets," says Lars Frick, a retail analyst at Kaupthing Bank in
Stockholm.
C
Formula Servizi
Formula
Servizi, founded in 1975 as a nine-woman cleaning co-op, has seen its revenue
grow steadily in the last several years, reaching
27.8 million at the end of
2003, while profits grew from
855,000 in 2000 to
3.4 million last year. One of
the elements behind the fast growth of Formula Servizi is its cooperative
ownership structure. Out of a total of 1,291 employees ms of the end of last
year — 87% of them women — more than haft are part-owners of the company and are
invited to participate in its democratic decision-making process, voting on
strategy and investment decisions. This definitely helps motivate
workers.
D
Eurofins
Mad cow disease.
Genetically altered crops. Food additives. Who knows what’s safe to eat and
drink these days Eurofins Scientific does. Based and set up in the French city
of Nantes in 1988, Eurofins is one of the world’s leading bioanalysis groups,
testing everything from fruit juice to pharmaceuticals. With profits of 1.6 million last year
on revenues of
168.7 million, it’s riding a surge in demand for
biotesting, as governments and industry seek to reassure the public about the
purity and safety of food and drugs.
E
Arup
Group
Founded in 1946 by Sir Ore Amp, a British-born engineer who studied
in Germany and Denmark, the firm has gone from a small engineering design outfit
to a global player with annual sales of
592.8 million. Amp’s 7,000 employees are mattered
across 73 offices in 32 countries. Business has been particularly brisk in
recent years because of the firm’s holistic approach of employing engineers,
architects, and ecologists. Sales jumped 44% in the three years to March, 2003.
Yet the firm, which is profitable, isn’t even considering an initial public
offering. Amp’s top executives like living without "watching-the-share-price
pressure."The company has kept a steady high annual sale increase for 15 years.
