Most of Sheffield-based Hillfoot's business is in the booming oil and gas sector where the group makes parts for specialist wellheads – the steel units that go on top of wells under the sea.

Hillfoot made earnings of £5m in 2007 on the back of an annual turnover of £43m.

Skipton Building Society further strengthened its financial advice market by completing its second acquisition in two weeks.

It bought a 75 per cent holding in Scottish-based independent financial adviser (IFA) Thomson Shepherd.

The acquisition came two weeks after Skipton acquired 85 per cent of Torquil Clark Holdings.

Thomson Shepherd became the fifth financial advice company within the Skipton Group, which includes Skipton Financial Services, Pearson Jones and Parnell Fisher Child.

Tuesday

More businesses in Yorkshire are the victims of crime than anywhere else in Britain, research revealed.

A Yorkshire and Humber Chambers of Commerce survey showed that 62 per cent of businesses in the region have been on the receiving end of anything from vandalism to robbery – four per cent more than the UK average.

The Yorkshire chambers are to campaign to get soaring business crime placed higher up the police and political agenda.

Nationally, the problem costs companies £12.6bn and makes up one-sixth of all crimes committed. The damage to the region's economy could be as much as £1.2bn.

It was revealed that the owner of Ferrybridge Power Station is one of two companies facing an investigation over an alleged abuse of a dominant market position.

Ofgem said that it had launched its inquiry into Scottish Power, which is owned by Spain's Iberdrola, and Scottish & Southern Energy, under section 18 of the Competition Act.

It said the decision was based on a complaint alleging abuse of a dominant position in the electricity generation sector arising from constrained capacity on the transmission network.

The investigation is separate from the probe into the energy supply markets which Ofgem launched in February.

Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE), which owns Ferrybridge Power Station, near Pontefract, said: "No specific allegations have yet been put to SSE, but we are confident that our actions in the electricity generation market have always been justifiable in economic terms and consistent with the operation of a competitive market."

Scottish Power, which has five million gas and electricity customers, said it was confident its participation in the market had been "lawful and appropriate at all times" and that it was co-operating with the investigation.

Wednesday

Hundreds of British holidaymakers, including schoolchildren, were left stranded after a low-cost airline went into liquidation.

The Britons were trying to get on to other flights after the financial collapse of Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, whose services included Gatwick-Hong Kong flights.

"There are hundreds of people stranded, including children returning after the Easter school holidays," said a spokeswoman in London for Hong Kong carrier Cathay Pacific.

Straight, the recycling company, announced that it was to embark on a major overseas expansion programme with plans to set up business in Australia, the United States and Continental Europe.

Leeds-based Straight believes that within five years its overseas business could equal its UK operations.

Chief executive Jonathan Straight said that the company would start manufacturing water butts in Australia over the next few weeks.

Mr Straight announced the overseas expansion plans alongside disappointing 2007 results.

One of the wettest summers on record hit sales of water butts. In addition, the group incurred nearly £500,000 in one-off reorganisation costs following the decisions to outsource distribution to a specialist and relocate the entire staff to one office in the centre of Leeds.

Thursday

The Bank of England cut interest rates to five per cent in the latest attempt to shore up the economy during the credit crisis.

The quarter-point cut is the third since December and comes amid economic turmoil, with figures earlier this week showing that house prices fell 2.5 per cent last month – the biggest monthly drop since the property crash of the early 1990s.

The decision was a welcome boost to struggling borrowers, who are already under pressure from soaring inflation.

The energy market geared itself up for a bidding war for British Energy following reports that the nuclear power company had received indicative bids from both British Gas parent Centrica and German utility RWE, valuing it at up to £11bn.

RWE, Europe's third-biggest utility and the owner of British energy supplier nPower, is thought to have made an all-cash proposal of just under 700p a share. Another source said Centrica had put forward an all-share bid, which was also pitched below 700p a share.

The bids were expected to flush out other suitors keen to get their hands on British Energy at a time when the Government has pledged to build a new generation of nuclear power plants to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.

British Energy is 35 per cent owned by the Government.

Friday

Cadbury Schweppes, the world's biggest sweets group and the company behind Dairy Milk, said that an early Easter and a price war among rivals had hit sales of chocolate eggs.

The confectionery group, which owns the Creme Egg and is under pressure from rising raw material costs and rivals' discounts.

The company said that its decision to limit its participation in aggressive seasonal Easter discounting had hit its market share.

The group, which plans to spin off its North American drinks unit next month, said that its global confectionery sales rose 7 per cent in the first quarter of 2008, but British sweet sales rose just 3 per cent.

A snapshot of trading at Sir Philip Green's retail empire emerged with indications of record years at Topshop and Topman but a downturn at Bhs.

The entrepreneur described the trading climate as the toughest he can remember. He refused to be drawn on sales figures for his privately-held business portfolio, but he did say that the fashion chains in his Arcadia business – such as Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge – were "fine".

In contrast, department store chain Bhs had suffered a "horrible" three to four weeks along with the majority of the sector.

Asked about Bhs's sharp reverse in 2006 – when profits declined to £51.4m from £114m in 2005 – Sir Philip conceded "we're going to have another one".

This follows a slightly improved operating profit in the year to March 2007 of £52.7m.

"What's killing me is the underlying costs," he said. "Underlying sales, like my margins, are not too bad."