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Steve Dawson of Arco Professional Safety Services wore a tuxedo and bow tie and was climbed on a ladder under one of the pods of Lastminute.com’s London Eye by Britain’s most famous secret agent at the Royal Albert Hall yesterday morning before the film premiere.

As experts in safety and working at height, Arco Professional Safety Services provides advice, training, services and equipment to tackle the most complex and risky high hazard scenarios with recognizable and iconic landmarks.

Steve Dawson, Work at Height Training Manager at Arco Professional Safety Services, said: “It has been a real privilege for Arco, as the UK’s leading security company, to work with the London Eye team to make this exciting event safe.

“Working at heights is what we are trained to do, and demonstrating our skills and expertise in working with the lastminute.com London Eye is proof of the trust the organizers have placed in us.”

Belfast-based software company Obbi Solutions has secured significant funding from the national agency Innovate UK, which will create new jobs in engineering, sales and customer support over the coming months.

Obbi Solutions is a multi-award winning software platform for integrated people, process and safety compliance by HR, operations and health and safety teams. It enables companies to revolutionize paper or manual processes and combine them into an automated workflow in order to save time and money and reduce risks.

Gareth Macklin, Founding Director of Obbi Solutions, said: “We are extremely honored to have received funding of £ 300,000 from Innovate UK. It was a nationwide competition with almost 3,000 submissions. We are very proud to know that they believe in our solution as much as we do and want to support us in growing. “

“If we secure this funding now, we can accelerate our growth plans faster than we ever imagined. Our software development team is now expanding along with our sales and customer support teams.

We are delighted that innovate UK sees such value and impact in what we do.

“With concrete growth plans with our solution and the expansion of our team, this is an extremely exciting time for the entire Obbi team. We believe Northern Ireland has some of the best talent out there and we are extremely proud to be able to offer additional positions at Obbi faster than planned thanks to Innovate UK. “

Obbi Solutions is a multi-sector solution with key markets such as manufacturing, engineering and waste, but has recently adapted and evolved to sport through golf clubs, all under the umbrella of integrated compliance.

“The need for an integrated compliance, health and safety system in golf clubs was particularly prominent as a niche in the market where we have already acquired some of the top golf clubs across Northern Ireland as customers. Many clubs find it difficult to implement, manage, and document health and safety regulations to demonstrate compliance, but we know we can easily help clubs with this problem.

“We are delighted that innovate UK sees such value and influence in our work. We are infinitely grateful to everyone who has helped us on our way so far and we can hardly wait to start the next chapter of Obbi. “

Staffordshire-based JCB remained profitable in 2020 despite the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on its global manufacturing operations, the company announced today.

Last year, sales fell to £ 3.1 billion (2019: £ 4.2 billion) while machine sales fell to 74,590 (2019: 92,216). The result on an EBITDA basis was £ 228 million (2019: £ 414 million).

JCB CEO Graeme Macdonald said: “In March 2020, with the Covid-19 outbreak, overnight orders worth £ 1 billion disappeared and JCB was forced to close its 21 manufacturing facilities worldwide for about two months. Despite the severe business impact, JCB remained profitable in 2020 as it has for the past 76 years.

“The trend reversal in 2021 was dramatic: We are now sitting here in September with four times the usual order backlog that we had in normal times two to three years ago. As a result, we are increasing production to a level that we have not achieved before. I’ve never seen anything like it in my career. “

JCB Chairman Lord Bamford said: “The past is the past and while 2020 was undoubtedly one of the most difficult years in our history, we are now very focused on the future.

“We continue to lead the way in zero-emission technology, particularly with the development of the construction machinery industry’s first hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine, which is already being tested in JCB machines. This is a great UK breakthrough and we will be producing these engines by the end of next year. “

TOMRA Recycling has officially opened its new Flake Sorting Test Center, in which the company will develop new applications and solutions in the areas of PO and PET flake sorting and at the same time expand its range of services

Under the motto “Testing is Believing”, TOMRA representatives welcomed the participants to its exclusive opening event and a tour of the new flake sorting plant next to the office in Parma, Italy.

The afternoon was filled with informative presentations and demos highlighting the company’s long-term plastics strategy, the purpose of the new facility and the many benefits it offers customers.

Fabrizio Radice, VP and Head of Global Sales and Marketing at TOMRA Recycling, opened the exclusive event and explained the reasons for TOMRA’s investment in the new test center. “We saw an increasing demand for flake sorting tests and a strong market push for high-quality recycled plastics,” Radice told attendees.

In just 18 months we have created a facility in which new ideas and innovations are developed in order to respond optimally to current market trends

“This requires the purest material fractions across all plastic applications and the corresponding technologies and solutions must be identified, developed and optimized. This is done in our new plant in close cooperation with our customers and partners. “

After Radice, Alberto Piovesan, Segment Manager Plastics EMEA & Americas, presented TOMRA’s flake sorting strategy and position in the plastics segment. The audience learned that the company wants to accelerate and shape the development of the industry through its extensive application and industry expertise, its advice and state-of-the-art technologies.

The new test center will play a crucial role in this, as Piovesan emphasized. “In just 18 months we have created a facility in which new ideas and innovations are developed in order to respond optimally to current market trends. It is even more important that we are working on solutions that are indispensable for every sorting and recycling plant in order to successfully upgrade plastics. “

The new trends in plastics recycling and their effects on the industry were also strongly emphasized. One of the trends is a discrepancy between input and output qualities. While input materials of lower quality are expected, the required output must have the highest possible quality.