Here are the stories making the business headlines in Scotland and across the UK this morning.
Peterhead’s JBS on track for record turnover thanks to ‘significant’ contracts
Peterhead-based engineering firm, JBS Group, has had what it describes as its “most successful period to date”, securing contracts worth more than £7 million.
The company has successfully “successfully embarked on or completed a range of projects”, both domestically and globally, during the past six months of the year.
It puts JBS on track to achieve turnover of £11.5m for its year-end in April, 2024 – a projected rise of nearly 40% on the previous year’s figure of £8.3m.
The latest contracts involve fabrication work, screw conveyors and its patented Sea Axe subsea excavation technology with jobs being secured in the UK, Europe, Brazil, South-East Asia, the Middle East and the USA.
JBS took over the Aberdeen-based firm, Screw Conveyors in 2017 following the high court in London putting the acquired business into administration.
‘It’s ruined Christmas’: Repairs on city centre stairs cost ‘strangled’ traders on The Green thousands every week
Exasperated traders on Aberdeen’s Green claim prolonged repairs at the Back Wynd Stairs have “ruined Christmas trade” for them.
Business owners say the closure of the steps, which form the main thoroughfare between Union Street and The Green, has “strangled” footfall into their venues.
This, they argue, has cost them thousands of pounds during what normally is their busiest – and most profitable – time of year.
Aberdeen City Council boarded up the stairway for refurbishment in September.
Read more in today's Press & Journal.
‘Disappointment’ as hundreds of North Sea firms fail to respond to D&I questions
Hundreds of North Sea energy firms have failed to respond to a key survey on their diversity and inclusion (D&I) practices, raising questions about their progress and commitment.
Just 5% of 400 member firms of leading trade body Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) responded to an employer survey on their D&I work, and only seven completed it with data other than age and gender.
It comes after a wider workforce report in 2021 said D&I is “critical” to the sector achieving net zero and the energy transition, as it reported the industry was 84% white and 55% male.
Commentators firmly criticised the industry for its latest lack of respondents, including that cultural conditions may not be right within organisations for employees to openly provide data to their employers.
CMA branded ‘irrational’ as Adobe abandons $20bn takeover
The US tech giant Adobe has accused the UK competition authority of “irrational” behaviour, as monopoly fears forced it to abandon a $20b (£16b) takeover.
Adobe, the software company best known for apps such as Photoshop, called off its takeover of design tool Figma, which had faced opposition from both the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the European Union.
The two companies had announced the deal more than a year ago but it had faced in-depth investigations in both the UK and the EU.
Last month the CMA said the tie-up threatened to “eliminate competition” between the two companies in areas such as product design software used to design apps and websites, and image editing tools.