Managing a large amount of data in real-time used to demand supercomputers, teams of highly-paid IT experts, years of work and a lot of money. Today, complex event processing systems are turning it into a lower budget affair. Penelope Ody

Those of you that attended the Extended Supply Chain conference in London at the end of March will have heard that the event has been acquired by Centaur Media plc, the publishers of Supply Chain Standard.

Iain Speak is to take over as chief executive of Bibby Distribution when Theo de Pencier moves to the Freight Transport Association in July.

Developers Wrenbridge and Gleeson have submitted plans for a 126,000 sq ft speculative shed joint venture at Kingswood Lakeside Business Park in Cannock that could provide 100 jobs on completion.

Amazon.co.uk is building a 800,000 sq ft distribution centre in Wales with the Macquarie Goodman Group.

Deutsche Post World Net has opened an innovation centre to develop products which will allow companies to respond to future trends in the supply chain.

Toyota Industrial Equipment (UK) and BT Rolatruc are combining to form Toyota Material Handling UK (TMHUK).

Pall-Ex’s Northamptonshire-based network member,
Mainland Group, a member of the Pall-ex network has moved to a 40,000 sq ft in Northampton.

Essex Flour & Grain Company has purchased a new £60,000 Accord IT system from Business Computer Projects.

The Tanfield group, owner of Smith Electric Vehicles, almost doubled its annual turnover in 2006 to £40.9m up from £22.4m in 2005.