In Brief

• UK manufacturing demand has continued to improve, with order books now at their strongest for 21 months, according to the CBI`s latest monthly industrial trends survey. The demand is being driven largely by export orders.

• GE Fanuc Embedded Systems is buying Towcester-based Radstone Technology for around £130.4m. Radstone designs rugged embedded computer products, mainly for military and aerospace applications.

• European Capital has bought the Birmingham-based manufacturer of weighting equipment, Avery Weigh-Tronix, for €123m. Avery`s products include load cells, platform scales and software.

• Mitsubishi Electric has joined forces with Dowding & Mills to create an automation service centre for Scotland, near Glasgow. The centre will provide scheduled maintenance servicing (including routine jobs such as tuning, cleaning and program back-ups), as well as rapid repair and emergency call-out services. Once the concept has been proven, similar centres could be established in other parts of the UK.

• Schneider Electric has become one of the first companies to adopt Gambica`s recently relaunched Service Classes Scheme, which allows automation companies to define their service levels in accordance with a set of guidelines. The scheme is designed to ensure that suppliers deliver service to a standard, and allows users to make informed decisions about the standard of service to ask for.