Leg-up at Smith & Nephew

The global economy must be on the up: people are buying more artificial knees and hips.

Smith & Nephew, Europe's biggest supplier of replacement joints, which suffered in the recession as patients were too scared to take time off work for operations, saw 2011 revenues rise 4 per cent to $4.3bn (£2.7bn).

But the company's pre-tax profit was 4 per cent lower at $961m.

It is planning to cut 7 per cent of its 11,000 worldwide workforce over the next three years.