International Business

Singer Buying Back Russian Plant: Parent company Semi-Tech Corp. of Canada has acquired a 70% stake in the huge sewing machine factory about 35 miles south of Moscow. The plant, taken over from Singer by the Bolsheviks eight decades ago, is the only manufacturer of sewing machines in the former Soviet Union, said the English-language Moscow Times. Since the company’s 1991 privatization, it has eliminated 4,500 of its 12,500 jobs, factory President Grigory Komarenko said. Sales of household sewing machines dropped from 1.6 million in 1992 to 190,000 last year, he said, adding that the takeover will provide at least $10 million in new capital to upgrade the facility and its products, hire more workers and allow production of other appliances.