Ideal Standard appoints Jim Moore as managing director UK & Ireland Published:  07 July, 2016 Ideal Standard has announced the appointment of Jim Moore as managing director UK & Ireland. Mr Moore will oversee the Group’s activities in UK & Ireland and assume responsibility for the business development across the Group’s brands Armitage Shanks, Ideal Standard and Sottini. The appointment will be effective from 1 August 2016. Mr Moore has spent the last 12 years in senior management positions with the Vaillant Group. He has a successful track record in the creation of high growth strategies and in developing close value-creating partnerships across the customer base. Mr Moore succeeds interim managing director David Barber, who has been responsible for the operational activities in UK & Ireland since his appointment in January. Mr Barber will continue in his prior position as finance director ensuring a smooth transition and continuity of operations. Torsten Tuerling, the Group’s chief executive officer, said: “I could not be more delighted to announce Mr Moore’s appointment and welcome him to Ideal Standard. He brings a wealth of industry experience, deep customer understanding and leadership gravitas. He will be instrumental to shape the next phase of evolution of our company.” Klaus Jesse will take over from Mr Moore at Vaillant, having worked for Vaillant Group in several leading positions since 1985. Before he took over the management of Vaillant Group’s international export activities, he was responsible for Vaillant in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. As regional director for UK and Ireland, Klaus will report directly to the Managing director for sales, marketing and service, Dr Andree Groos. Source link

20 September 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal ESS Support Services Worldwide (ESS) Offshore recently secured three contracts to deliver hotel and catering services on the newly constructed Jack-Up drilling rig Maersk Highlander, as well as two floatels (accommodation vessels). The Maersk Highlander is currently operating in the UK sector of the North Sea. Built this year in Singapore, the unit has a capacity to hold 150 personnel, which will include 18 ESS Offshore staff. The contract will run for three years. ESS Offshore will be responsible for catering for all personnel in the canteen, mess room and recreational areas as well as the maintenance of the cabins, an on-site gymnasium, and recreational rooms. The floatels – the Safe Boreas and COSL Rival vessels – are predominantly used in the industry to provide support related to the maintenance and modification of installations on fields already in production, or the hook-up and commissioning of new fields, while also operating gangway connections to the installation they support. The Safe Boreas vessel, also built in Singapore, is named after the Greek god of the north wind, and can accommodate 450 people in single-person cabins, while the COSL Rival floatel has a maximum capacity for 400 people in the UK in addition to containing a cinema, gymnasium and internet café at both sites.   The combined £3.5 million contract for the provision of hotel and catering services, operated from the North Sea, will see ESS Offshore station at least 80 staff across both vessels. Source link

Sellers in Spain are becoming more realistic about prices and have reduced asking values which is seen by experts as a good move in terms of keep in the real estate recovery going. Asking prices fell by 0.2% to €1,624 per meter in April, according to data from property portal Fotocasa, compared to a year ago. Meanwhile the latest house price index from the Government shows that prices were up 2.4% in the first quarter of 2016 year on year and up 0.2% quarter on quarter. The Fotocasa asking price index has been fairly stable for the last year, with prices never varying more than 1% either up or down. ‘House prices will continue to go in different directions during 2016,’ said Beatriz Toribio, head of research at Fotocasa. ‘Whilst in some areas of the country prices are stabilising or even rising, in others they continue to fall hard. This is a consequence of the crisis the sector has lived through, which has left a market of two or more speeds that is ever more obvious,’ Toribio added. Since the peak of the market in 2007 average house prices have fallen by 45% but there is some regional variation. Peak to present prices are down by 50.5% in Murcia, 47.5% in the Valencian Region, 47% in Catalonia, 43.9% in Madrid, and 42.6% in Andalusia. The Government figures, however, show that house prices are down 29% since the peak which it outs at the first quarter of 2008 and it adds that price bottomed out in the third quarter of 2014. Prices have increased the most in the Balearics with growth of 9.6%, followed by Catalonia up 4.9%, Madrid up 4.2%, Extremadura up 3.7%, Galicia up 2.6%, the Valencian region up 2.4% and the Canaries also up by 2.4%. The latest mortgage figures show that lending volumes are also up which means more people can buy a home. The data from the National Statistics Institute on Friday reveals that the number of new mortgages listed in the property registers in Spain stood at 22,983 in March, up 4.5% over the same month in 2015. In more good news for the Spanish property market the latest report from the General Council of Notaries show that foreign demand rose by 12.9% in 2015. More than half, 52%, were people buying a holiday home while 48% were foreigners living in Spain. The British were the biggest group of foreign buyers with 21% of the market, followed by the French at 9%, Germans at 7.5%, Belgians at 6% and Italians at 5.5%, the data also shows. The Balearics is the most popular part of Spain with overseas buyers with foreign purchases amounting to 44% of the market, with the Canaries at 39%, Valencia at 37% and Murcia and Andalusia both at 25%. Foreign demand growth was strongest in regions with small markets, where even a modest increase in foreign demand translates into a big increase in percentage terms. Growth was biggest… Source link