Region. Branding Jessica

Francine Garlin, a lecturer in consumer behaviour, at UWS, said in the Weekend Australian, when commenting on Jessica Watson’s epic sail around the world: “She’s in a good position to develop a career out of this if she can develop into a brand, and then have brands align themselves to her. But she has to be careful and selective of those opportunities.”

Richmond. Aerospace firms seeks staff

Marshall of Cambridge Aerospace, one of Europe’s leading privately owned aerospace companies, a sub-contractor to Qantas Defence Services (QDS), at Richmond RAAF Base, has advertised for business development managers for the Asia Pacific and Australia/New Zealand. The Marshall Aerospace Australia’s engineering team, co-located with QDS, at Richmond, is responsible for providing all types of C-130 aircraft engineering support ranging from structural repair design, general technical and logistics support to comprehensive avionics modification upgrades.

Northmead. Things go better at Coke

Coca-Cola Amatil’s $45 million investment in two PET bottle-making lines, at its Northmead plant, was achieving substantial reductions in the cost of PET resin, freight and storage, according to CEO, Terry Davis. He said in The Australian Financial Review he would seek board approval soon to install similar lines at other facilities in Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia, at a cost of more than $300 million

Rouse Hill. 'Green store' at shopping centre

Woolworths was using its store in the Rouse Hill Town Centre as a “green store” benchmark for all of its new outlets, according to Michael Cameron, CEO, of GPT Group, the centre owner. He said in The Sydney Morning Herald the group had worked with all its tenants to deliver what he called the lowest footprint possible for each of them by implementing minimum resource-usage standards and fit-out guidelines.

Region. First 'BioBank' site

The Environment Minister, Frank Sartor, today will announce the first of the state's highly controversial ''BioBank'' sites with the government purchase of 80 hectares of grassland near Camden as a permanent conservation reserve.The offset purchase marks a new era in environmental management and is the first step in a plan to secure some of the surviving pockets of building land in Western Sydney for the construction of 180,000 houses in 40 years. The $1.7 million paid for the Camden reserve, funded through a developer levy, will be used to manage the site for conservation

Region. Land set aside for farming

Swathes of land in the Sydney Basin could be set aside for farming and market gardens under a proposal the state government is considering to stem the loss of agriculture in outlying suburbs.Under the idea, likely to rile developers vying for greenfield space on the city fringes, new planning powers would be developed to establish the farming-only zones. A report from the NSW Department of Industry and Investment last October found that more than half the farms in the Sydney region will disappear in the next two decades because they are in areas earmarked by the government for suburban growth, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. The Primary Industries Minister, Steve Whan, will reveal the proposal today at a conference on Sydney's food security and health hosted by the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils (WSROC).