Internal: Archive

Unions demand higher salaries

This content was published on Aug 16, 2000 Addressing a news conference in Berne on Wednesday, the federation secretary, Serge Gaillard, said the increase was needed to take account of inflation, estimated at two per cent this year. In addition, the federation is demanding a real salary increase of 1.5 per cent. Gaillard said the economic situation was such that all branches could…

Sunny outlook for travel group

This content was published on Aug 16, 2000 The company’s first-half figures were underpinned by a string of acquisitions as well as internal growth and were broadly in line with market expectations. European holiday companies typically see most of their income coming through in the second half of the year, and Kuoni is no exception. The company expects sales for the year as…

Jam-maker sweetens news of falling income

This content was published on Aug 16, 2000 The company, which is majority owned by Germany’s Schwartau International, went through a major restructuring last year. Operating profit was up 25 per cent at SFr30.4 million ($17.5 million), but this was boosted by a SFr11.5 million one-time gain from disposal of Italian real estate. The true figure was a more modest gain of SFr6.7…

More companies enter billion-franc league

This content was published on Aug 16, 2000 The newspaper said more than two thirds of Switzerland’s 1,000 biggest companies saw an overall improvement in sales. Of those, 10 saw profits of more than a billion francs, and 21 recorded a negative result. The report said the most spectacular performance was recorded by the telecommunications sector. Also doing well are businesses specialising in…

Private banks advised to join Holocaust settlement

This content was published on Aug 16, 2000 Jacques Rossier, representative of the private banks at the Swiss Bankers Association, said: “I recommend that private banks accept the demands of the settlement.” At a presentation in Zurich, the Swiss Bankers Association and the two big banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, told cantonal and private banks about the fine print of the settlement. It…

Refrigerators give clues to health of older people

This content was published on Aug 15, 2000 The study published in the latest edition of the British medical journal “The Lancet” found that those older people with empty fridges were more likely to fall ill than those with well-stocked refrigerators. The research examined 132 elderly patients with an average age of 81. These patients were receiving routine house calls after leaving hospital.…

Nestlé embroiled in food safety row in Senegal

This content was published on Aug 15, 2000 The Senegalese watchdog, Ascosen, claims that Nestlé is selling a harmful product, which contains unacceptable levels of bacteria. Ascosen said the milk was found to have 57 times more bacteria than the legal upper limit. Nestlé denies the claim. A spokesman at the company’s headquarters in Switzerland, Marcel Rubin, told swissinfo: “We have conducted extensive…

Scientists play down fears over animal-to-human transplants

This content was published on Aug 15, 2000 The Swiss response comes after the Roslin Institute in Scotland, which created the world’s first cloned sheep, Dolly, announced it would no longer pursue research in this field. The Roslin Institute said the decision was taken for purely economic reasons, after its American backers, Geron Bio-Med, cut its funding for research into producing genetically altered…

Business leaders denounce energy tax proposals

This content was published on Aug 15, 2000 Influential businessmen from different sectors of the economy held a news conference in Berne on Tuesday to ask voters to reject all three plans. Each of the proposals calls for an additional levy on energy. The money raised would be used for the promotion of alternative forms of energy or to support the country’s social…

Ciba beats expectations

This content was published on Aug 15, 2000 Net profit rose to SFr215 million ($125 million). Analysts had anticipated a figure close to SFr200 million. Sales increased by 14 per cent to SFr4 billion. The company says it expects continued but more moderate growth for the rest of the year. “Current trends and forecasts for the development of both the global economy and…

Internal: Archive

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