I __________(receive) our company's end-of-year results yesterday, and I am delighted to announce that it 's _______(be) an excellent year for Prunel. As you all remember, we only ________(start) ten years ago in a suburb of Grenoble where we ________ (employ) six people, two of them part-time. Today, that number 's ________(grow) to over 1,500. In more than 30 countries, people now associate the Prunel brand name with trendy and trendsetting clothing designs. At the beginning of the new century, we __________(begin) targeting the Japanese and North American markets for future growth, and things ________ (improve) considerably since. You will be pleased to hear that we 've just acquired full control of our Canada-based joint venture. A lot of other positive changes have taken place recently despite signs of a global downturn. Earlier this year, our staff _________ (expect) redundancies; instead, we ________ (take on) fifteen new shop assistants since May. Besides, we ______ (open) our new flagship store in Toronto three weeks ago. I know that our success is down to all your hard work. Congratulations to you all.