A roundup of today's other business news in brief

DCC buys fuel card business for 10m

Industrial holdings group DCC has purchased the fuel card business of British- based Cooke Holdings for €10 million.

Cooke Fuel Cards sells about 105 million litres of motor fuel a year through fuel cards to 5,000 commercial fleet operators. It will be integrated with DCC Energy's existing fuel card business, Fuel Card Services Ltd.

For the year to December 31st, 2008, adjusted profit for Cooke Fuel Cards is expected to be €2.9 million, DCC said in a statement.

Senior appointment at Qualceram Shires

Bathroom fittings specialist Qualceram Shires has appointed David Swords as chief operations officer with immediate effect.

Mr Swords, who joined the firm in 1992, was previously finance director and company secretary, and was appointed to the board in 1997.

Economy likely to contract 4% in 2009

The economy is likely to contract 4 per cent this year as unemployment rises to more than 10 per cent, according to a report from Davy stockbrokers. Credit restrictions will see fixed investment fall and asset prices continue to fall this year with no improvement forecast until 2010, it said.

Rise in euro zone investor sentiment

Investor sentiment in the euro zone improved for the first time in seven months in January, a survey by the Sentix research group showed yesterday.

Sentix's monthly index of investor morale in the euro zone came in significantly higher than expected, recording -34.4, compared to -42.3 in December.

Redundancy notifications double

The number of job losses notified to the Government last month almost doubled to 3,350, the latest figures show. Redundancies notified to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment came to 3,350 in December, 94 per cent more than the 1,719 recorded in the same month in 2007.

In 2008, employers told the department they intended to let go of 40,607 staff. This was 60 per cent more than the 25,459 job losses notified to the Government the previous year.

Company failures soared last year

Company failures more than doubled last year, with 575 businesses going to the wall, figures published yesterday show.

According to business information specialist Experian, the number of liquidations in the Republic rose to 575 in 2008 from 273 the year before.