Departure of Lyme Bay left Wallsend yard high and dry

JULY

THE unfinished naval ship, the Lyme Bay, pictured below, was towed out of Swan Hunter's Wallsend, North Tyneside, shipyard, to be completed by a rival shipbuilder in Scotland. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) pulled out of its contract with Swans because of delays and spiralling costs. The MoD said the cost of building the Lyme Bay, and its sister ship the Largs Bay, at Swans, had more than doubled, from £148m to £309m. Swan Hunter's Wallsend yard was then mothballed.

TESCO unveiled its proposed £200m redevelopment of the Vaux brewery site in Sunderland. Tesco joined forces with housebuilder Persimmon and office developer Abstract Securities to put forward revised proposals for the 14-acre site, which would bring 2,000 jobs to the North-East.

MOBILE phone group Orange announced plans to close its Pererlee, east Durham, call centre, employing 900 people - while creating 300 jobs in India. The French company said all staff would be offered the chance to move to sites in Darlington and North Tyneside.

CONSTRUCTION group MMP, of Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, went into administration, with the loss of more than 270 jobs.

CARE home company Southern Cross floated on London's stock market, raising £200m to fund growth and acquisitions. The Darlington company initially delayed the float as a result of the turbulence in the stock market in May.

BRITISH Sugar dealt a major blow to hundreds of beet growers in the region by announcing plans to close its York factory. About 1,200 farmers in the Yorkshire area are likely to be affected by plans to shut the beet sugar factory, which employs 102 people. British Sugar said it was also closing a factory in Shropshire as part of cost-cutting measures that will see it reduce its number of factories from six to four.

PACKAGING company SIG Combibloc announced the closure of its County Durham factory, with the loss of 125 jobs. The Swiss company said the plant, at Fencehouses, near Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham, would close as part of cost-cutting plans across its European sites that would save £13m a year.

AUGUST

SKINCARE company Dermasalve Sciences, of Newcastle, announced the acquisition of UK distributor of omega-3 products, Healthy and Essential, with up to nine million shares, worth about £1.2m.

SOFTWARE group Sage announced its largest acquisition to date. The Newcastle company agreed to acquire health software unit Emdeon Practice Services (EPS), based in Florida, for £297m from US parent company Emdeon Corporation. It was Sage's fifth major deal of the year. The group said it had hundreds of millions of pounds still available to continue its acquisition programme.

BAKERY chain Greggs announced the closure of six Bakers Oven stores in the North-East with the loss of at least 85 jobs. The closures formed part of plans to axe 200 jobs and close 14 Bakers Oven sites because of poor performance in North Yorkshire, the North-East and Scotland. The Newcastle group also revealed a 20 per cent slump in half-year pre-tax profits, with soaring energy bills and increased competition blamed for a difficult start to the year.

ZURICH Financial Services announced plans to close its call centre in Fenkle Street, Newcastle, threatening the jobs of 500 staff. It was thought the group could export jobs to India, where it opened a call centre in 2002 and where staff numbers have grown tenfold in the past four years.

THE biggest producer of tablemats in the world, Pimpernel International, in Consett, County Durham, went into administration, with the loss of 69 jobs. The company recently moved production from its UK site to China. Cashflow problems as a result of the move led to administrators from Deloitte being appointed.

SEPTEMBER

NESTLE UK announced it was cutting 645 jobs at its York factory as part of a shake-up. The Swiss-owned company said its historic plant would be divided, with the original 19th Century Rowntree factory buildings sold for redevelopment. Nestle pledged to invest £20m to improve the remaining production facilities and safeguard more than 1,800 jobs.

NORWICH Union owner Aviva announced plans to axe thousands of jobs, including 650 in the North-East and North Yorkshire, as part of a £250m cost-saving programme, with plans to move 1,000 jobs to India. Aviva said it intended to reduce its 36,000 UK staff by 4,000, with 450 job cuts at the headquarters of its life assurance business in York, which employs nearly 3,500 staff. A further 200 jobs will be lost at Norwich Union's Newcastle office in Market Street, where 328 people work.

TRANSPORT group Hargreaves Services reported a 134 per cent rise in profits and promised to remain in the North-East. The County Durham company, which provides transport and support services to the energy and waste sectors, said acquisitions and growth across all divisions helped pre-tax profits for the year to May 31 rise to £5.5m. The group, which is based in Esh Winning, near Durham, said turnover rose 77 per cent to £155m, while its order book reached record levels.

ENGINEERING group Amec revealed plans to create about 100 jobs in Darlington after reporting a 21 per cent rise in half-year profits. The group said its industrial division, which has its headquarters in Darlington, would recruit more than 500 people nationwide.

THE Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) paid £440m for Huntsman's base chemicals business, on Teesside, which employs more than 800 people. Sabic bought the cracker plant, at Wilton, the aromatics business, at North Tees, a paraxylene plant, which makes raw materials for polyester, and a half-built polyethylene plant - the world's largest - at Wilton.

REGIONAL development agency One NorthEast revealed its Regional Economic Strategy (RES) - its plan for the North-East economy for the next decade. The RES aims to create up to 73,000 jobs and up to 22,000 businesses by 2016, tackling long-term unemployment and raising productivity levels.

CAR dealer Williamson Motors went into receivership with the loss of 85 jobs. Williamson, based in Darlington, called in the receivers, and its dealerships in Hartlepool and Spennymoor closed immediately, together with its Parsons Truck Centre business in Hartlepool. The car body shop in Hartlepool and Williamson's Darlington dealership were sold.

LOW-COST airline bmibaby announced that it was axing its base at Durham Tees Valley Airport. Bmibaby cancelled six year-round routes and two seasonal routes. The airport later secured budget airline Flyglobespan.

OCTOBER

SNACK maker United Biscuits (UB) pledged to bring more jobs and investment to Teesside as it agreed to a £1.6bn takeover. The owner of brands including McVitie's and Jacob's employs more than 1,000 people in the region. It was bought by European company PAI and US equity investment firm Blackstone Group. UB also said it planned to move production of Wheat Crunchies from the Golden Wonder factory in Scunthorpe to its KP factory in Billingham, on Teesside.

THE company behind the controversial ghost ships saga was awarded the country's biggest oil rig dismantling contract. Able UK will recycle and dispose of the North-West Hutton platform at its Graythorp yard, in Hartlepool. The contract will create 50 jobs when work starts in 2008/9.

LEAFLET distribution company Amaro was bought out of administration by larger rival Mediaforce. The £125m-turnover Mediaforce Group, run by multi-millionaire entrepreneur Malcolm Denmark, paid an undisclosed sum for Amaro, which is based in Gateshead.

GLASSMAKER Corning Incorporated announced the proposed closure of its Sunderland factory with the loss of about 100 jobs. The US group said it could no longer justify investing in its Wear Glass Works because of the declining profitability of the plant over the past few years. The factory manufactures specialist glass products, such as laboratory beakers and flasks for the group's life sciences division, and rolled sheet glass used in car headlights for its speciality materials division.

NEWCASTLE United posted losses of more than £12m - in part due to expensive signings and an absence of European football last season. The club's investment in England striker Michael Owen, bought from Real Madrid, and Spanish international Albert Luque, contributed towards losses from operations of more than £6.2m, compared with an operating profit of more than £5.9m the previous year. Its total retained losses for the 11 months to June 30 were more than £12m, compared with a £620,000 profit the previous year.

BUSINESS entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne launched a new venture in the property sector. The millionaire businessman, best known as a judge in the BBC series Dragon's Den, launched Bannatyne Housing, which is developing a number of sites across the UK.

GREEN fuels manufacturer the Biofuels Corporation announced plans to build two more plants on Teesside, creating more than 100 jobs. The Billingham company, which has built the UK's largest biodiesel factory at Seal Sands, is to build another two 200,000-tonne plants on the same site, with production at both expected to start at the end of 2008.

INTERNET solutions company the Onyx Group said it could create 200 jobs after signing a deal with a major US technology group. Onyx, which is based in Middlesbrough, was chosen by New York Stock Exchange-listed NCR Incorporated to help it expand its radio frequency identification (RFID) network in the UK.

NOVEMBER

AT least 1,200 civil service jobs across the region were put under threat when HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced plans to concentrate its operations at fewer sites. The department, which employs 15,000 staff across the North-East and North Yorkshire, was already more than half-way through a programme to cut 12,500 jobs and save £30m by 2008. An HMRC regional spokeswoman said it intended to shed another 12,500 jobs by 2011, cutting the budget by a further 15 per cent, reducing the total number of employees in the department to 90,000. The Public and Commercial Services Union said as many as 200 department offices nationwide could close as part of the proposals.

A £3M price tag was put on Swan Hunter's Tyneside shipyard. Owner Jaap Kroese said he wanted to sell the land in the next four months. The Dutch millionaire said he would work with the council to find the right buyer to redevelop the land and create hundreds of jobs.

SOFA specialist ScS Upholstery announced that it had opened a record number of stores in the year. The group, which is based in Sunderland, said annual sales had increased 24 per cent to £195.8m thanks to the impact of a store expansion programme, which saw 21 shops open during the year. Full-year pre-tax profits to September 30 rose 11 per cent to £16.8m

BLACK & Decker announced proposals to shed about a tenth of its workforce in the region. The power tool manufacturer said it was planning to make 32 job cuts, through voluntary redundancy, at its site in Spennymoor, County Durham. It also said it was considering closing its Maltby manufacturing plant, in South Yorkshire, with the loss of 74 jobs.

Black & Decker blamed global economic pressures and a competitive marketplace for the moves.

FOOD delivery company Moorsfresh ceased trading after falling into financial difficulties. Bosses had hoped to sell the award-winning North Yorkshire company to an unnamed buyer, but talks ended and the firm went into voluntary liquidation. Moorsfresh, of Pickering, North Yorkshire, owed thousands of pounds to its suppliers.

BRITISH Gas owner Centrica announced it had teamed up with Progressive Energy to set up a joint venture company to build the UK's first clean coal power station on Teesside. The development will create 50 permanent jobs and up to 1,000 construction jobs. The plant will turn coal into synthetic gas to create electricity.

DECEMBER

TWO business in Trimdon, County Durham, ran into financial difficulties. Volante Public Transportation Interior Systems Limited, which employs 70 people, went into administration, blaming a number of loss-making contracts for its demise. Canal boat maker Steelcraft, based on the Trimdon Grange Industrial Estate, went into liquidation, threatening 30 jobs. Councillor Lucy Hovvels, Mayor of Sedgefield borough, said: "We are a small community and we rely on small local companies like this to help generate income back into the area. This is a real blow for this community."

MICROCHIP manufacturer Atmel announced plans to sell off its North-East plant - putting about 800 jobs under threat. US-owned Atmel has put its site in Silverlink, North Tyneside, on the market as part of restructuring plans to save tens of millions of pounds in the next two years.

ENGINEERING company CTC Marine Projects announced plans to treble its turnover to £100m and create 50 jobs. The company, which was acquired by Norwegian group DeepOcean ASA in September, said it would move into bigger premises in Darlington and invest in equipment.