business round up

This week’s business round up.

Toyota is to increase UK car production by almost a third and create 300 jobs. The Japanese manufacturer will switch production of its three-door Corolla car from Japan to Burnaston in Derbyshire. The company described the move as a “survival plan” to counter extreme market conditions in the UK. Its UK car production will increase from 170,000 a year to 220,000 next year. The switch will create 250 jobs at Burnaston and 50 at the engine plant at Deeside, North Wales. Burnaston was the second most productive car plant in Europe in 1999 and exported about 80 per cent of its output. Press Association

The management board of online retailer Letsbuyit.com resigned on Wednesday as the company faced insolvency. Administrators have taken over the running of the debt-ridden dotcom. Letsbuyit is continuing to search for more investors, which has about 15m euros (£9.5m) left from the 62m euros (£39m) it raised at flotation. Analysts claim the company’s share price slump is a sign that the pressure on dotcoms could continue this year. FT

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210 dotcoms collapse

An estimated 15,000 people lost their jobs last year because of dotcoms going out of business, research has revealed. San Francisco company Webmergers claimed 210 Internet companies went bust last year. The failure rate for Internet firms increased in the last quarter of 2000, when 60 per cent of closures happened. www.webmergers.com