SBWire

HUDSON, MA (Feb. 21, 2023) – Precision Coating, a leading medical coatings service provider to interventional, orthopedic, and advanced surgical markets is proud to announce that it has recently achieved ISO 14001:2015 certification for its environmental management system at their Hudson, MA facility. Bill Ellerkamp, president of Precision Coating, commented that "this certification reflects a lot of hard work by our employees and a tremendous commitment to sustainability. Having a robust and certified environmental management system in place supports and reinforces our conviction to implement best practices to meet or exceed the expectations of all of our stakeholders. This milestone marks the completion of one stage of a long journey on which we will continue to do the right thing always and be relentless about improvement."

Boston – ThinkLite, LLC, www.thinklite.com. ThinkLite, a globally recognized manufacturer and installer of LED lighting solutions, gathered energy and lighting industry leaders, esteemed clients, and vendors to the Boston College Club event this past Thursday. In addition to celebrating ThinkLite's success in the exclusive setting overlooking the Boston skyline on the 36th floor of 100 Federal Street with specialty cocktails and appetizers flowing, attendees had the opportunity to network and contribute to the Project Bread fundraiser.

In 2014, debit card penetration among consumers increased significantly, mainly for payments and everyday purchases. The number of cards in circulation, the number of transactions, and retail value increased dynamically. Consumers are actively using their cards as more POS are available for them in restaurants, bars, stores, gas stations, etc.

Sales in home audio and cinema were restrained by the reduction in consumption driven by the economic crisis and the sky-high growth of mobile devices, which are substituting audio devices. On the other hand, smartphones was also responsible for the volume growth of speakers: mini models with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection drove sales and slowly substituted digital media player docks.

Home furnishings continued to see strong retail value sales growth in 2013, due to the escalation of property development in Thailand, especially in urban areas. Holistic service provision and a widening customer base were key factors in a very competitive category. Home furnishings benefited from the demand for built-in furniture, which showed growth potential due to property development trend in the country. More furniture brands were available to meet the growing demand from especially condominium dwellers.

Air ambulance services are sophisticated and advanced medical services provided in a mobile environment. These services have become an essential component of the modern healthcare system. The medical critical care transport saves lives as it is an effective way to shift or carry critical patients to healthcare facilities. The air ambulance transport services are used in war-torn regions, during natural disasters, outburst of epidemics and road accidents.

Luxury jewellery and timepieces is expected to achieve slow but positive current value growth in 2014. The category is benefiting from the slow but steady recovery of the Spanish economy. Although macroeconomic indicators are much more positive than microeconomic ones, by mid-2014 the unemployment rate had declined on the previous year, bringing hope to the average Spanish consumer and supporting to some extent the performance of the category.

Following the same trend seen in 2014, the continuous rise in the cost of raw materials such as sugar continues to impact sugar confectionery prices. The sugar crop in the mid-west region of Brazil suffered another decline in the 2013-2014 harvest due to dry weather, which contributed to the rise in final prices of sugar products to consumers.

Convenience and health and wellness are the main drivers of growth in breakfast cereals. While breakfast cereals are traditionally associated with breakfast, increasing purchasing power, combined with more hectic lifestyle leading consumers to look for more convenient food and snack options, are contributing to the increase of breakfast cereals. On the other hand, there is some pressure to reduce the sugar content of some RTE cereals and especially their sodium content. The reduction of sodium is being pushed by the Ministry of Health and ABIA (The Brazilian Food Industry Association), which announced at the beginning of 2013 the goal to reduce the quantity of sodium to 418mg per 100g of product. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the ideal quantity of sodium for adults is 5g per day, while, in Brazil, average consumption is 12g a day.

In 2013 baby and child-specific products in Azerbaijan demonstrated a further good performance, largely due to the increasing number of products in the market in the last two years of the review period. This included offerings from Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Kalina Concern and Kompaniya Klever OOO. Parents do not worry much about the quality of products as they are likely to meet their requirements, but pay more attention to price and usability. With rising disposable incomes families continued to look for more child-specific products, and companies also successfully addressed this demand by widening their portfolios, launching products in various animal shapes. Kompaniya Klever OOO led this packaging trend. Furthermore, various child-specific products, such as shampoo, liquid soap and shower gels were launched under the brand name of the famous Russian-produced cartoon, Masha i Medved (Masha and Bear) which is very popular among Azerbaijani children.

Growth in dishwashers in Colombia continued to be constrained by various external factors towards the end of the review period. Along with the relatively high unit prices in the category and the absence of tradition or culture surrounding the use of dishwashers, the range of dishwashers currently on offer in the country is limited to full-sized, built-in appliances which require additional plumbing and, potentially, a change of furniture in the kitchen in order to match the design of the built-in panels. For these reasons, sales of dishwasher remain quite low in Colombia, with the majority of demand focused on households undergoing kitchen remodelling projects and new dwellings. Nonetheless, new construction projects which offer pre-installed kitchens featuring built-in dishwashers are quite scarce in Colombia, leaving the remodelling of existing kitchens as the most important driver of sales in the category. Colombian households engaging in kitchen remodelling projects often also find that the range of dishwashers currently on offer does not include appliances which would be suitable for small kitchens with limited space and very few Colombian households would be prepared to sacrifice substantial amounts of storage space in order to install a dishwasher, placing limits on growth in the category.

It is expected that sales of drinking milk products will increase by 4% in current value terms in 2014. This growth will be driven mainly by unit price increases (especially price rises in cow's milk), rather than greater consumption, which is expected to stagnate in 2014. In comparison with 2013's performance, drinking milk products will not be as successful in 2014 as its average unit price increase is expected to be lower than in 2013. However, in comparison with the whole review period...

In 2014 leisure and personal goods specialist retailers in Morocco increased by 3% in current value terms. This growth was mainly driven by the rising purchasing power of women, who are increasingly joining the workforce; hence driving sales of jewellery and watch specialist retailers and luxury bags specialists in Morocco.

Global Markets Direct's, 'Nuevolution A/S - Product Pipeline Review - 2014', provides an overview of the Nuevolution A/S's pharmaceutical research and development focus.

Global Markets Direct's, 'HAL Allergy BV - Product Pipeline Review - 2014', provides an overview of the HAL Allergy BV's pharmaceutical research and development focus.

Lithuania's mobile market recorded negative growth in 2013 and the for first nine months of 2014, with incumbent Omnitel finally ceding its lead position to Tele2. The mobile market is saturated and as operators move customers to more valuable postpaid plans, so large numbers of inactive prepaid accounts are being eliminated. In Omnitel's case, this has yielded stronger ARPU figures and uncovered underlying posit ive ARP U growth that had previously n o t been visible. Consumers have become used to very low monthly mobile bills, however. And, despite an uptick in mobile data consumption, we expect revenues to continue declining over the next five years. The pressure will be on operators t o develop advanced new prod ucts and services. Not all players will survive the medium term and news that the Bit? gro up is being prepared for sale comes as no surprise.

We continue to favour the Tanzanian sugar and coffee industries over the medium term owing to the potential for growth on the back of strong investment in capacity. The grain industry in Tanzania will remain less competitive than in other countries in the region, particularly South Africa and Zambia, and we see little potential for the country to become a major grain exporter.

Towards the end of the review period, growth in transportation in Austria continued to be driven by the rising value sales being generated in air transportation, specifically schedule airlines, which accounted for 86% of total transportation sales in 2013, registering ?3.5 billion in retail value sales. Still, the highest value growth was registered by low cost carriers, which increased by 9% in 2013. Even though schedule airlines remained the largest air transportation category in Austria during 2013.

Geomembranes are synthetic membrane liners used in geotechnical engineering to contain or control the flow of fluids or vapors. The two common processes used to manufacture geomembranes are calendering and extrusion; the raw materials used are polyethylene, bitumen composites, or geotextiles in combination with polymer sprays, colorants, asphalt, or elastomers. HDPE, LDPE, PVC, PP, and EPDM are the most widely used forms. Geomembranes are vital to the Waste Management, Water Management, and Mining industries

An automotive wiring harness, usually the last component to be finalized on a vehicle prototype, is an assemblage of cables or wires used in automobiles to transfer signals or electric power. It is also known as a wiring loom for automobiles. Electric wires are tied together with the help of different components such as cable ties, electrical tape, conduits, or a combination of these to form the complete wiring assembly. An automotive wiring harness safeguards the wires against the impact of vibrations than individual electric wires in automobiles. In addition, it is better secured from abrasions and moisture. The number of components to be connected in an automobile is increasing, hence, complicating the design of the automotive wiring harness. Companies have developed design software and CAD tools to design automotive wiring harnesses.

The life segment, despite being smaller than the non-life segment and facing the challenge of low affordability at present, will outperform over the coming years as it grows from a low base and benefits from Latvia's introduction into the Euro. While the non-life segment will retain its majority of the insurance market in 2018, its share will decline from 88.1% currently to 86.0% by 2018.

Health and wellness tourism in Austria was influenced by two distinctive factors over the course of 2013. On the one hand, as a country with a high proportion of elderly citizens, Austria is seeing an increase in demand for medical tourism and destination spas. As elderly Austrians tend to have higher levels of disposable income, whether retired or still working, they generally opt for holidays which include relaxation and health treatments. On the other hand, an increasing number of middle-aged and young working Austrians are displaying a similar tendency, looking for offers which include holidays in wellness hotel/resort spas.

Recent developments have led us to hold a more positive outlook for Egypt's pharmaceutical and healthcare markets. An increased healthcare budget for 2015, combined with the government's efforts at developing the local manufacturing industry and combating medicine shortages and counterfeit drugs are all positive developments. We expect Egypt's relative political stability and positive economic outlook to further increase interest from foreign pharmaceutical companies.

Singapore has one of the highest levels of food consumption in the region, which effectively eliminates the possibility of substantial industry growth in the short or medium term. This is illustrated by our modest sales growth forecasts for a majority of sub-sectors to 2018. Nonetheless, we believe that the Singaporean alcoholic drinks market has not reached a saturation point yet and holds significant growth potential over our forecast period.

In 2013 retail sales of cigarettes saw growth, albeit of only 2% in volume. Tobacco market experts consider the internal demand for cigarettes in Belarus to be fairly stable. High growth in retail sales of cigarettes in the first part of the review period (2009-2011) was partially attributed to the so-called "people's export", with some volume of cigarettes sold in Belarus taken out of Belarus to nearby European countries by private travellers. This tendency slowed in 2013 because the high...

With a deteriorating economic environment, the Argentine grain sector will continue to play centre stage over the medium term. With foreign reserves under pressure, grain exports (particularly soybean) will remain vital, but there is increasing evidence of hoarding, which could lead to clashes with the government over policy.

The TRA's release of 800MHz LTE spectrum in the UAE will enable operators' networks to cope with rapidly rising demand for data. As content becomes an increasingly important piece of the Middle East's telecoms ecosystem, we expect operators to continue forming partnerships with and eventually move to acquire regionally focused content providers.