Business

Accenture has reported strong financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2012, with net revenues of $6.8bn, an increase of 12pc in US dollars and 13pc in local currency over the same period last year. Operating income was $889m, an increase of 15pc, and operating margin was 13.1pc. New bookings for the quarter were $7.94bin, with consulting bookings of $4.05bn and outsourcing bookings of $3.89bn. “We are very pleased with our second-quarter performance, which included strong revenue growth in all five operating groups and all three geographic regions,” said Pierre Nanterme, Accenture’s chief executive officer. “We’re also pleased with our profitability both the growth in EPS and the expansion…

Nearly three quarters of Irish businesses in a survey say they’re open to flexible work practices, however, only 11pc provide the basic technology which would enable this. The survey commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by Vanson Bourne shows that 69pc of these businesses have policies and guidelines in place in their organisation, but only 19pc of those businesses measure the impact of flexible working (on employee satisfaction, productivity and customer satisfaction, for example). Some 30pc of employees say they’re aware that their organisation has policies or guidelines in place for flexible working and 11pc of employees say they have the technology which would enable them to work flexibly. The survey…

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton TD has today announced that Eli Lilly and Company, a global leader in biopharmaceuticals, is to invest €330m in a brand-new facility at its Kinsale campus in Cork. The investment will expand the Kinsale site’s existing biopharmaceutical mission with the establishment of an additional world-class commercialization and manufacturing facility. When fully operational, the new plant will require up to 200 highly skilled employees. Also, a further 300 construction jobs will be created on the site during building works. The planned 240,000-sq ft biopharmaceutical commercialization and manufacturing facility announced today will further enhance…

Microsoft said today that it will invest another US$130m in expanding its Dublin data centre. The company originally spent US$500m on centre, which has been in operation since July 2009 and provides computing capacity to customers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Once complete, the expanded facility will employ a further 50 to 70 people. Around 400 jobs will be created during the construction phase over the next 12 months. “This investment shows where we are placing our bets for the future,” said Peter Klein, Microsoft’s chief financial officer, in Dublin today. “As customers embrace Microsoft cloud services such as Office 365, Windows Live, Xbox Live, Bing and the…

Centra said today that it plans to 150 new jobs in 2012 as it invests €10m in new store openings. The convenience retailer said it will add 300 jobs to its existing workforce this year, as a further 20 stores are added to its network. Some 150 of these jobs will be created by the opening of a number of new greenfield sites, with the balance coming through store extensions and other independent stores joining the Centra network. This will involve an investment of €10m in new store openings, as well as the extension and refurbishment of existing stores. Speaking today at Centra’s National Retailer Conference in Killarney, Martin Kelleher,…

People in Ireland have mixed feelings about corruption, according to a new Eurobarometer survey carried out for the European Commission. Just 55pc of Irish people think corruption is unavoidable and has always existed, which is the second lowest rate in Europe after the Czech Republic at 46pc, and well below the EU average of 70pc. However, 86pc of Irish respondents believe corruption is a major problem in their country, compared with the EU average 74pc, and a one point increase since the 2009 survey. The Greeks (98pc), Portuguese and Cypriots (both 97pc) and Hungarians and Romanians (both 96pc) were most likely to think that corruption was a major problem in…

Global data centre solutions provider Digital Realty Trust has acquired a 10-acre development site in Profile Park in Dublin 22. The site is capable of supporting the phased development of approximately 11.5 megawatts of data centre space across four buildings, totalling around 193,000 square feet of space. “Dublin remains an important data centre market for both local and multinational corporations, including large technology and Internet companies as well as IT service providers,” said Michael F Foust, CEO of Digital Realty. “Using our phased development approach, this site will enable us to support our customers’ expanding data centre needs by bringing data centre space online efficiently in terms of both time…

Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) this morning reported a 10pc increase in its full year revenue in 2011 to €7.357bn and pre-tax profits of €299m, up over 190pc from €103m in 2010. “We are pleased to report EBITDA growth of 12pc to €1,015m and pre-exceptional EPS growth of 69pc to €1 for the full year of 2011,” said Gary McGann, Smurfit Kappa Group CEO. “Our strong free cash flow generation delivered a net debt reduction of €358m to €2.75bn in 2011, which exceeded our net debt reduction target. Lower net debt combined with a strong EBITDA outcome delivered a reduction of our net debt to EBITDA ratio to 2.7x at year-end.”…

Some 37 globally-focused start-ups based at NovaUCD expect to create 300 highly-skilled jobs over the next two years, which will more than double the number of people currently employed there. NovaUCD’s high-tech companies are all focused on international markets. For example, HeyStaks and Tethras also have offices in Silicon Valley in addition to their HQs in NovaUCD and Equinome is providing its equine genetic tests to thoroughbred horse breeders and owners not only in Ireland but also in the UK, France, Russia, Australia, the US, New Zealand and Singapore. The employment projection figures are based on the results of an annual employment survey of companies based at the centre. There…

Aer Arann adds two new routes, increases flight frequencies Aer Arann is to add two new Aer Lingus Regional routes to its summer schedule, as well as increasing frequencies on nine of its existing routes. The two routes to be operated by Aer Arann under its franchise agreement with Aer Lingus are Dublin-Bournemouth from 1 May, which will oeprate six times a week, and Shannon-Rennes, which will operate once a week as a summer seasonal route from 9 June to 1 September. Aer Arann will increase frequencies on nine of its Aer Lingus Regional services to: Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Blackpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Rennes. “Aer Arann is committed to providing its customers with easy, convenient…