BBC2, 16 September
Rating: 4/5
Search Page
Nine of Asia’s largest airlines, including Cathay Pacific, Qantas and Singapore Airlines, have formed an online travel agency. The move is aimed at cutting the firms’ sales and marketing costs, which account for around 20 per cent of their expenditure.
Counterfeit goods cost the UK up to £6.5 billion a year, according to the Institute of Trading Standards (ITS). David Sibbert, the ITS’s chairman, said that rip-offs cost tax revenue and jobs, as well as allowing unsafe goods to be sold. Trading-standards officers seized £70 million of counterfeit goods last year. The ITS has launched a plan to combat counterfeiters.
Councils can attain best-value targets in contracts with private companies as long as both parties agree to annual improvements, according to a recent government consultation paper.
The producer of Massey Ferguson tractors is seeking suppliers from mainland Europe in a bid to keep costs down and ease margins. Robert Ratliff, chairman of Agco, the US company that produces the tractors from its Coventry plant, blames the high cost of the pound against the euro for having to look for suppliers outside the UK.
Yiannis Gabriel
Oxford Universtiy Press, £15.99
Q: My company does a fair bit of business with European countries and we’re thinking of adopting e-procurement. Does the European Union e-commerce directive have any relevance for us?
The Authorities’ Buying Consortium, which represents 13 councils in western Scotland, has awarded a major contract to three companies for the supply of photocopiers to the public, charity and voluntary sectors.
Q: I have recently relocated to the UK and notice that many job advertisements refer to European Community procurement directives. What are these and how will they affect me as a purchasing professional?
Q: I want to implement purchasing cards to reduce the amount of time my department spends dealing with queries on low-value purchases, but our finance director says they are not right for our company. How can I convince him?