EU-DIGEST

New Jersey Lakewood company buys Dutch partner in Almere, Holland

Component Hardware Group, a Lakewood-based company that manufactures plumbing and hardware products, has acquired CHG-Europe in Almere, Netherlands, for an undisclosed amount, company officials said Thursday. The acquisition is expected to give Component Hardware a sales office and distribution center to sell its products throughout Europe. The two companies previously worked together through a joint venture.

Component Hardware is known in the industry for making bacteria-fighting products for commercial buildings and health-care providers.

Labels: Almere, Business, EU, Hardware, Netherlands

Red Herring Europe 100 Awards Announced

The list of 100 winners was announced Tuesday at the Red Herring Europe conference in Malta. With more than 200 attendees including entrepreneurs and investors, the conference focuses on the specific challenges of entrepreneurship in Europe and serves as a showcase for many of the Red Herring 100 Europe winners and the 100 finalists who did not make it into the winners’ circle.

Labels: Business, EU

The Top European Business Stories of 2007 - by Andy Reinhardt

From the launches of the Airbus A380 superjumbo jet and the Apple (AAPL) iPhone to the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and its financial aftershocks, 2007 was an eventful year for business in Europe.

You might call 2007 the Year of Carbon, at least in the sense of the public's rising awareness of global warming and the planetary impact of carbon emissions. Indeed, we noted early in the year how consumers and companies were latching onto carbon offsetting to boost their green quotient. The U.N.'s startling climate change report in April only added to the sense of urgency. Europe got off to an early start with its carbon trading system, which was hailed as a success in May, though the cost of carbon credits later plunged due to oversupply. By the end of the year, the Euronext stock exchange announced that it plans to launch a carbon trading market in 2008, when new regulations go into effect.

Labels: Business, Economy, EU

UK companies 'dominating Europe'

Of the 750 top European firms, UK-based businesses were responsible for more than a third of Europe's total profits. But, UK firms believe it is harder to start and grow a business now than when Labour came to power in 1997, a British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) report said.

Labels: Business, EU, Europe, UK

Velkomin to the United States of Foreclosure - by Mike Whitney

The stock market is about to crash. The only question is whether it will quickly fall down the elevator shaft or follow the jerky flight-path of a man pushed down a stairwell. Either way, the outcome will be the same; stocks will nose-dive, the dollar will plummet, and the bruised US economy will be splattered on the canvas like George Foreman in "Rumble in the Jungle". Troubles in the sub-prime market have just begun to materialize and already 38 main sub prime lenders have gone kaput. Foreclosures have reached a 37 year high, and an estimated 2 million homeowners will be put out on the street in the next few years.

The storm is just ahead. The stewards of the system--Paulson, Bush, Bernanke--could care less about the public welfare. All their energy is devoted to building a lifeboat for themselves and their fat-cat buddies. Once, they’ve robbed the last farthing from the public till they’ll be gone, and we’ll still be marching along the path to national calamity.

High-flying US fund manager Jim Rogers summed up the impending crisis like this: “You can’t believe how bad it’s going to get. It’s going to be a disaster for many people who don’t have a clue about what happens when a real estate bubble pops. Real estate prices will go down 40-50% in bubble areas. There will be massive defaults. And it’ll be worse this time because we haven’t had this kind of speculative buying in U.S. history.”

Labels: Banking, Business, Economy, Government, US

Labels: Business, Culture

Bulgaria's largest investor and real estate company from the US - Magdalena Rahn

Both the largest real estate company and the largest investor in Bulgaria are American. Such was one of the points that Borislav Boyanov, president of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Bulgaria, emphasised at the organisation’s general assembly.

James Rigassio, commercial councillor to the US embassy, explained in his keynote speech that the spirit of AmCham is to always be moving forward, to see and achieve more. “Now Bulgaria is in the European Union, and many of your plans have been realised, and you’ve provided a tremendous service to your members,” he said, noting that more European Union presence in Bulgaria can coincide with increased US representation.

Assuring American participation in the Bulgarian economy can and is occurring in a number of ways, Rigassio said. An ambassadorial road show is planned for early May 2007, in which large American urban areas (the California Bay Area; Denver, Colorado; New York; Boston) will be visited and Bulgarian partnerships will be initiated; 2006 saw AmCham help American companies in the areas of security and defence find Bulgarian partners for the joint training facilities in Bulgaria; there will be a defence-sector trade show in Bucharest in which AmCham Bulgaria will have representation.

Labels: Business

Romania - Transylvanian treasure Family hunting manor reinvented as inn - by ALISON MUTLER

There is only one count in this remote Transylvanian village of 512 souls nestling in the wilds of the Carpathian Mountains -- and it isn't Count Dracula. Meet Count Tibor Kalnoky, a dashing 40-year-old entrepreneur and son of Transylvania descended from a noble family that settled in these misty lands in the 13th century and lived there until communism forced the family to flee.

Kalnoky's manor, which opened in 2001, lies deep in southern Transylvania, an area where myth and reality are loosely entwined. But you'll hardly hear a word here about Dracula, the Romanian warlord Vlad the Impaler or Bram Stoker's novels. Instead Kalnoky lures guests with the old world of Transylvanian customs and hospitality.

Comment EU-Digest: European entrepeneurs like Count Tibor Kalnoky are the ones that will make the EU into a success story. Click on this link for Count Tibor Kalnoky's biography"

Labels: Business

Sipal Partners (Belgium - Italy) launches new product

Sipal Partners has been the marketing unit for Meurens Natural s.a. in Belgium and Sedamyl S.p.a. in Italy since 2002. As a specialist in non-refined organic cereal concentrates, the company’s latest product innovation is an organic rice concentrate as a basic ingredient for the production of vegetable drinks, with the taste of rice, natural sweetness and non allergenic properties.

The Sipal range can be used for a variety of applications as sweetener, bulking agent, coating prevent, crystallisation, natural colouring or fat replacer in several products like biscuits, drinks, yoghurts, jams, breakfast foods, cereal bars, ice cream, baby food or bakery goods. There are 14 varieties of liquid syrups available, like wheat, manioc, corn, rice, barley, spelt as well as combinations. There is also a range of nine dehydrated syrups. Distributors are located in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Korea, US, UK, and France.

Labels: Business