The Yomiuri Shimbun held a ceremony at a Paris restaurant Friday to celebrate the opening of the newspaper's Advertising Bureau office in the French capital.

About 150 people, including government officials and French business leaders from companies such as Celine and Renault, attended the ceremony at the Pavillon Ledoyen. The office--the Yomiuri's second base in the French capital after its Paris News Bureau--aims to raise recognition of the newspaper within European business circles and promote economic and cultural exchanges.

Czech firm Walmark, the largest vitamins and nutritional supplement producer in Central and Eastern Europe, announced the opening of a new a branch in Paris, its first one in Western Europe.

France will become the ninth country in which Walmark has its branches. It already has outlets in Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine. The firm’s long-term goal is to become European leader on the nutritional supplements market.

The Scottish company, HoundDog Technology, specialized in the development of tools for managed services and IT support, has announced that it is opening its first sales office in France.

The company is already present in the market via independent distributors.

The Belgian company, Actual Sign, specialized in signage for buildings, has announced that it is opening a showroom for it products, in Lyon.

The company is specialized in interior and exterior signage, including security signage (evacuation plans, pictograms) and functional signage.

The Norwegian company, Meltwater News, specialized in electronic media monitoring, is setting up its first subsidiary in Bordeaux.

This development is a sign of the successful growth of the Norwegian company, which is currently recruiting future management staff to develop this market.