A. Complete the text with the verbs:

grew began patented leads founded became

Levi’s have been the most famous brand of jeans and denim clothing for decades. Levi Strauss & Co. was ________ in 1853 when Levi Strauss emigrated from Germany to San Francisco to help with his brothers’ dry goods business. The company _____producing denim overalls in the 1870s but did not start making jeans until the 1920s. Strauss and his partner Jacob Davis ________the copper rivet to reinforce clothing in 1873. It was to become a key part of their jeans design. The demand for their jeans skyrocketed in WWII. Their sales staff ________from 15 before the War to 22,000 in 35 countries just after it. Levi's jeans ________popular with young people in the 1950s and ‘60s. The 501 was then, and is today, their biggest-selling product. The company _______the fashion industry in the number of trademark infringement cases.

1. Match the sentence halves.

1 Panetti employs over 3,500 people,	a) but it plans to expand into France.
2 It introduced four new products last year,	b) including 1,400 in its own retail outlets.
3 It makes bread and	c) including sandwiches and pies.
4 Panetti only supplies its own shops;	d) many other bakery products
5 It doesn't sell any of its products abroad,	e) it does not make products for anyone else

2. Match these words and phrases from exercise B with a word or phrase that has a similar meaning.

1 manufactures	makes
2 provided
3 has a workforce of
4 export
5 launched

Notes: Make and manufacture do not have exactly the same meaning. To manufacture means to ‘make large quantities of goods in a factory, using machines’. You manufacture (or make) cars, drugs, plastic goods, etc, but you usually make (not manufacture) bread, cheese, etc.

3. Complete each sentence with these phrases.

a) about future projects.
b) for quality control.
c) in international construction projects.
d) a new product.
e ) of a department-of 15 staff.
f) under the brand name Tekko.
1 Juliette is in charge …	4 They manufacture plastic furniture …
2 Panetti is going to create…	5 Jo and Francis are involved …
3 Alex is responsible …	6 She likes to make presentations …