The Vauhall Astra might not be as glamorous some British built cars, namely those produced by Jaguar, Morgan or Bentley, but it is perhaps no less a British icon. This year the lowly Astra, the car of the people, is celebrating an important milestone – the launch of it’s 7th incarnation. In real terms this means more than 36 years of continuous production in UK and that must be worth celebrating. At least, that is what Vauxhall thought…. so they made this rather inspiring video:

This new Astra is the 11th major model-line to be built at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire and guarantees 2,000 jobs at the plant over the next decade. The plant secured a long-term contract in 2012 and a £140m investment which further demonstrates the brand’s continued commitment to manufacturing the car in Britain.  It is estimated that at full production in 2016, the plant will build around 680 Astras per day with further growth in subsequent years.

The British success story extends beyond the Astra itself – as for more than half a century, Ellesmere Port has been the manufacturing home of every compact class Vauxhall in the UK. With nearly 25% of parts sourced locally from UK suppliers, the plant is a significant contributor the local economy and the continued investment at the facility is set to boost UK manufacturing, utilities, construction, transportation and storage companies by at least £70m.

We were interviewed for part of a feature about one journalists efforts to buy British for a week in last Sundays Telegraph. For those that bought the paper there was actually a far larger article and a buying British quiz in the online version (We only got 9 our of 11 in the quiz). Anyway, we were asked to provide a brief bullet point guide to buying British…. so here it is:

Toys

Unlike in the 1950s and 1960s, there are very few British toy manufacturers around anymore. One of the few you are likely to find on the high street is Orchard Toys, which makes a wide range of fun and educational games and puzzles. There’s also Merrythought, which makes high quality teddy bears in the UK.

English wine

Once derided, English wine is now cool. Many of our own vineyards are producing wines of a world beating standard, especially some of the sparkling wines. From large producers like Denbies to smaller makers like The Squerryes Estate, there are many fantastic bottles on offer.

GB Sauce

It might surprise many that HP sauce is made in Holland but do not despair. New kids on the block, GB Sauce, make their whole range in the UK… plus they all taste fantastic.

Rapeseed oil

Unlike olive oil, it is easy to buy British produced rapeseed oil in all of the major supermarkets. Brands like Farrington and Hill Farm can be found quite easily and add a distinctly nutty flavour to meals.

Fake Britannia

Don’t be fooled by the Union flag on products. This does not mean that it is made in Britain. Look for the specific words “Made in Britain” or even our own made in Britain logo which is now used by more than 700 British manufacturers.

Christopher Nieper – A British Manufacturing Hero!

Growing demand for clothing that is “Made in Britain” is fuelling David Nieper’s ambitions to double its production with the addition of a £750,000 cutting factory in Derbyshire. However, they also have big ambitions to help the local community.

The women’s clothing maker has just opened the new factory in Alfreton, just a short distance from the firm’s main premises, that is set to see their production double. This is of course good news for the company but also great news in securing local jobs.

News of the new factory came just days after the company announced that it had taken over a failing local school, offering investment and management in order to help get it out of special measures. The companies ambition for Alfreton Grange Arts College is to improve its Ofsted rating to “good” or “outstanding” status within three years.

People ask us why British manufacturing is important – well, manufacturers, especially where they are British owned, tend to understand the importance of the communities that rely on their factories. We regularly hear stories of manufacturers making huge differences to the people in their communities,   beyond the provision jobs (Interestingly, I have never heard of a bank going to the same lengths). Congratulations to David Nieper for continuing this tradition.

The Queen out for a drive in her Defender

As part of plans to boost its worldwide production, Jaguar Land Rover has recently agreed to build a new plant in Slovakia. JLR have steadily unveiled plans to manufacture outside of Britain since being bought by Indian firm Tata, opening its first overseas manufacturing plant in China in October last year. Should we be worried about the iconic British brands future in the UK?

JLR have recently announced that it is to build a new plant in the western Slovak city of Nitra. Up to 300,000 vehicles a year could soon be built at the new factory. The model anticipated to be produced there is non-other than the new Defender. While this has not been confirmed by JLR, the first vehicles are expected to roll off the new production line in 2018 and this same year is also the one in which we expect the next-generation Defender is to appear in the dealerships. Coincidence?

The company have also said that as part of plans to bring production closer to major markets, the firm will open a plant in Brazil in 2016 and have signed a manufacturing partnership to build models in the Austrian city of Graz.

Tata bought the admittedly ailing British brand in 2008 and has more than doubled it’s profits in the past 4 years alone. However, it would seem that in less than 10 years of ownership Tata will have moved a significant proportion of the manufacturing overseas.

Personally, I feel it would be a real shame if the Defender model (or a derivative of it) was produced abroad, such is the iconic nature of it in British culture. Defenders have been made in the UK continuously for nearly 70 years, are said to be the most recognised vehicle in the world and are even a favourite of The Queen herself.

Like many of the once British brands now sold to foreign owners, we have little control over the destiny of Jaguar Land Rover. Tata, I am sure, will make the vehicles in whatever country is cheapest to produce them in, with little regard for heritage, tradition or [dare I say] British workers. If this is the start of JLR pulling out of the UK we have, I am afraid, no power to stop it.

Britain has sold off more than half of its companies to foreigners, but does anyone really care?

When asked to think of a quintessentially British company you might instantly consider Boots the chemist, Jaguar Landrover, Mini, Selfridges, Harrods, The Savoy, Fortnum & Mason, Cadburys, the Dorchester, Debenhams, ASDA, MG Rover, P&O Ports, British Airports Authority, Corus (formally British Steel), British Energy, ICI and lottery operator Camelot. However, each of these businesses, and far too many more to mention, are now in foreign hands.

The long standing argument has been that foreign investment is a good for Britain. Indeed past labour, and conservative, governments have both been keen to erect the for sale signs, rubbing their hands at the windfall of much needed fund this bought into the economy. And indeed it did just that, in the short term.

What has not been considered has been that the vast majority of these companies, once sold, instantly move offshore and exploit every loophole imaginable allowing them to pay negligible, if any, tax. Soon after the takeover of Boots by an Italian conglomerate its headquarters where quickly moved from Nottingham, where it had been based for 161 years, to Switzerland. Before the takeover Boots paid £89 million in British tax each year. That figure has now shrunk to just £9 million. If we now consider that this same scenario might be happening in over half of our registered businesses is it any wonder that Britain is in economical turmoil?

But it does not end there, as of 2012, foreign corporations also controlled 39 per cent of all UK patents. This is far more than the percentage of foreign-owned patents in the U.S. (11.8%), Japan (3.7%) or even the European Union as a whole (13.7%). Meaning that Britain innovation is also being sold abroad with little regard for the future.

Perhaps this is the price we pay for operating in an increasingly globalised world? Well no – Britain is unique in having such a lax attitude to selling off its family silver.

Other countries adopt an ‘economic patriotism’, not seen in the UK, which involves putting obstacles in the path of foreign bids. Take France, for example, which continues to argue that it’s in the national interest to prevent key businesses falling into foreign hands. Like when the U.S. drinks giant PepsiCo made a bid for the French food firm Danone in 2005. In the end, the then President Jacques Chirac declared that the French yoghurt-maker was considered a ‘strategic’ company, so couldn’t be sold to a foreign firm. And then again when, in 2006, the takeover of energy firm Endesa by German owned E.ON was on the cards the Spanish used a similar tactic to block the deal going through. However, just one year later Scottish Power was easily snapped up by  the Spanish investors.

More globally;  India, Japan and the USA all have processes that allow them to block foreign ownership yet we in Britain are happy to sign over our crown jewels to the highest bidder.

So who or what is to blame? Well it seems to be a clear mix of government complacency and shareholder greed are at the heart of what has fuelled the continued downfall of British industry. But the worst thing is that there are no signs of a resolution anywhere on the horizon.

The concern is now that skills have already been lost, iconic brands have been asset stripped and rendered worthless and irreplaceable infrastructure as been sold off. We have had an overarching rule since we started our blog over 3 years ago – to remain optimistic in our reporting. In this case we are going to have to break that rule because we have to admit that, on the face of it, Britain might already be too late to save.

Our thanks to Alex Brummer (author of Britain For Sale: British Companies In Foreign Hands) for inspiring this post.