Sun shines on Scotland

Sun Microsystems has announced that it plans to invest $38 million to expand its Scottish factory in Linlithgow, outside Edinburgh. Included in the program will be redesigning final assembly facilities so that products can be tailored and delivered "ready to use" to customers.

"We will give them a product that's ready to plug in rather than a lot of boxes," said Sun spokeswoman Iona McCullagh. "Our customers are so large and have such requirements that, rather than leave them to do it in the field, we do it on site under the eyes of our own engineers." Several hundreds additional jobs will be created at the Linlithgow facility as a result of the expansion.