What A Joke This Country Is Becoming

[Guest horace]

I can honestly say I cannot think of any MAJOR british companies that the rest of the world envy us for. Can someone help?

TB

I`m not sure what you mean by `MAJOR british companies`. Most sizable business undertakings are `Quoted` and as such their shares can be purchased by any nationality on many stock exchanges.

It seems to me that it would be very difficult to find a wholly owned / managed business which fulfills your `British`peramiters

h

Edited April 15, 2006 by horace

[teddyboy]

Well, this thread has shown how little some people know about our own companies...

I did not profess otherwise. It was just whilst looking around the house there is next to nothing british. Televisons, hoovers (Dyson), Video, Computers, Amps, Speakers, Coocker, Fridge, Shower, Velux Window etc.

I find it strage than being IB Britain there is nothing here FROM BRITAIN! So what is counteracting all this importing of goods?

This is the gist of the question. I was however once told that the top 10 British companies I have probably not heard of. I think this an interesting post in that the MAJORITY do not know about all these companies.

We should spend more money on apprenticeships are start going back to the days when Britain was a market leader.

TB

[FreeTrader]

I`m not sure what you mean by `MAJOR british companies`. Most sizable business undertaking are `Quoted` plc`s and as such their shares can be purchased by any nationality on many stock exchanges.

It seems to me that it would be very difficult to find a wholly owned / managed business which fulfills your `British`peramiters

Quite right. At end 2004, overseas investors owned 32.6% of UK listed companies, exactly double the holding from a decade earlier.

Many of these companies are no longer 'British' in any real sense. They are free to relocate to a more advantageous regulatory/tax domicile whenever they like (and a number have recently threatened to do so).

[clv101]

I did not profess otherwise. It was just whilst looking around the house there is next to nothing british. Televisons, hoovers (Dyson), Video, Computers, Amps, Speakers, Coocker, Fridge, Shower, Velux Window etc.

That's a list of 'things', whilst it's true we don't actually manufacture household items much any more it is not the same as saying we don't have any decent british businesses.

[BuyingBear]

I`m not sure what you mean by `MAJOR british companies`. Most sizable business undertakings are `Quoted` and as such their shares can be purchased by any nationality on many stock exchanges.

Just like P&O, O2, BAA, Abbey etc

[Ted D. Bear]

''Harry Potter'' is our biggest export

What better example can there be of making something from nothing!

Other good examples of good exporting companies that are based on intellectual property:

ARM - design the chips that run mobile phones.

Wolfson - design the chips that run iPods.

Sage - leading accounting software systems.

Tough none of these are large it's just as possible for a national economy to thrive based on numerous small, innovative, companies as larger more visible firms. Indeed, I suspect that firms like ARM have rather higher margins than those that make 'things'.

Edited April 15, 2006 by Ted D. Bear

[BuyingBear]

What better example can there be of making something from nothing!

Other good examples of good exporting companies that are based on intellectual property:

ARM - design the chips that run mobile phones.

Wolfson - design the chips that run iPods.

Sage - leading accounting software systems.

Tough none of these are large it's just as possible for a national economy to thrive based on numerous small, innovative, companies as larger more visible firms.

It's also just as easy for said companies to run their licencing oprations out of Cayman Islands if the burden becomes too much, such are the vagaries of intangibles.

[jonpo]

LSE, P&O, O2, BAA, Loyds

I think you can measure envy and desire by how much some other dumb country from andother continent is willing to Bid/go into debt for you.

British companies = bid targets of the world.

[ʎqɐqɹǝʞɐɥs]

rockstar

[JonoP]

I did not profess otherwise. It was just whilst looking around the house there is next to nothing british. Televisons, hoovers (Dyson), Video, Computers, Amps, Speakers, Coocker, Fridge, Shower, Velux Window etc.

I find it strage than being IB Britain there is nothing here FROM BRITAIN! So what is counteracting all this importing of goods?

This is the gist of the question. I was however once told that the top 10 British companies I have probably not heard of. I think this an interesting post in that the MAJORITY do not know about all these companies.

We should spend more money on apprenticeships are start going back to the days when Britain was a market leader.

TB

Bloody hell Teddy Boy - get with the times!!! If you want british made TVs then you are gonna have to pay british workers the sames amount as their international counterparts/competition. Or pay a premium for the product so british workers can maintain the standard of living they have come to expect.

I, for one, do not want to earn the same amount as a chineese factory labourer. Or, perhaps, you want to pay twice us much for a british (Roberts perhaps :-)) TV than one that has been made in Asia?

Now on the other hand, there is good money to be made importing them from Asia and selling them on. In fact, we have a world class retailer who does just that - Dixons Stores Group - who make quite a lo of money outside of the uk as well.......

[Ted D. Bear]

It's also just as easy for said companies to run their licencing oprations out of Cayman Islands if the burden becomes too much, such are the vagaries of intangibles.

In theory yes, but there's nothing that can be exported that can't be done elsewhere, in theory. In practice most companies that rely on design and licensing (in my experience at least) are founded on strong ties with academic institutions, and we still have some of the world's foremost research departments. They also rely on employing first rate scientists and engineers, of whom there are more in the UK than the Cayman Islands.

[Elizabeth]

Bloody hell Teddy Boy - get with the times!!! If you want british made TVs then you are gonna have to pay british workers the sames amount as their international counterparts/competition. Or pay a premium for the product so british workers can maintain the standard of living they have come to expect.

I contest that last sentence. Money is in this case a relative concept, and a worker in India in an outsourced role at 200 a month is likely to have just as good a standard of living as a British worker on 6x as much. If you went to a market in india, do you think that you would pay 1.20 for a lettuce? more like 20p if that.

Its so that British workers can continue to pay 7.5X their income on morgages at the current house prices. If you paid most British workers 200 a month what do you think that would do to the housing market?

[BuyingBear]

In theory yes, but there's nothing that can be exported that can't be done elsewhere, in theory. In practice most companies that rely on design and licensing (in my experience at least) are founded on strong ties with academic institutions, and we still have some of the world's foremost research departments. They also rely on employing first rate scientists and engineers, of whom there are more in the UK than the Cayman Islands.

There's nothing stopping you maintaining your research division in the UK, which is the guts of the company in terms of operations, and your licencing operation can be placed where ever you like, which is often the guts of the company in terms of revenues.

See BSkyB, NDS, Newscorp etc.

Edited April 15, 2006 by BuyingBear

[New Darker Law]

rockstar

Owned by the yanks I believe.

However, their Scottish team, formerly DMA Design (Lemmings anyone?) produce record breaking products such as the Grand Theft Auto series.

NDL

[Guest Guy_Montag]

My worry is that, in the past 50 years we have had our manufacturing outsourced. Traditionally people believed "we desgn them, they make them, we buy them cheaply", but lacking engineers & scientists soon we are going to be in the interestinh position of "they design them, they build them, we can't afford to buy them".

My question is: How do we stop this happening, or rather what does the govt. need to do to sto this happening?

[BuyingBear]

My question is: How do we stop this happening, or rather what does the govt. need to do to sto this happening?

Install a cash point in every home and let the trade deficit rip!

[MarkG]

My question is: How do we stop this happening, or rather what does the govt. need to do to sto this happening?

I suspect it's more a question of _can_ we stop that happening?

And my guess is the answer is no. When you spend decades valuing bureaucrats, lawyers and pop stars over scientists and engineers, it takes decades more to turn around.

But still, we can turn the whole country into a big casino and bring in lots of money from abroad that way.

[Wuluf]

1. BMW

2. SAP

3. DaimlerChrysler

4. VW

5. ThyssenKrupp

6. Allianz

7. DeutscheBank

8. Bertelsmann

9. Adidas

10. Aldi

11. Siemens

12. Munich RE

13. BASF

14. EON

15. Bosch

16. Porsche

.....

Sorry..

Nestle

CSFB

UBS

ABB

Swiss RE

Novartis

Roche

Zurich

....

[thunderbird900]

Triumph Motorcycles made in Hinckley are a British success story. Ever since John Bloor restarted production their exports have gone through the roof.

Up to the 80's the British Motorcycle industry was a leading example of how to run a successful product into the ground.All the leading makes had disappeared into oblivion. From Triumph, BSA, Norton to Matchless, AJS, Velocette, Vincent etc, one by one they did not adapt or modernise and all curled up their toes and died. The writing was on the wall when those funny little Japanese fellows turned up in the Isle of Man in the late fifties with their multi cylindered high revving machines. How the British laughed at them. Within years they were winning all the races. The death knell was sounded when the Honda CB 750 was unveiled in 1968. Here was a four cylinder, overhead cam, disc brake, electric start bike that even today looks right. Even in the 80's Triumph were still producing a parallel twin, push rod Bonneville that leaked oil and shook itself to bits. Don't be fooled by the name. I owned three Bonnevilles and they were all rubbish. Meriden monsters.

Look up the Triumph site on the web. A lot of the names are the same. From Bonneville to Trophy, Daytona to Tiger. Some of them even look the same. However, these are ultra modern reliable bikes that sell all round the World. Triumph even produce the largest capacity bike available anywhere. The Rocket Three (a BSA name) is a three cylinder 2.3 litre monster.

John Bloor is a sensible bloke. He stays in the background and lets his product do all the talking.. and selling. He is not like Dyson and will not take production to the Far East.

I rest my case!

[Guest Guy_Montag]

Triumph Motorcycles made in Hinckley are a British success story. Ever since John Bloor restarted production their exports have gone through the roof.

Up to the 80's the British Motorcycle industry was a leading example of how to run a successful product into the ground.All the leading makes had disappeared into oblivion. From Triumph, BSA, Norton to Matchless, AJS, Velocette, Vincent etc, one by one they did not adapt or modernise and all curled up their toes and died. The writing was on the wall when those funny little Japanese fellows turned up in the Isle of Man in the late fifties with their multi cylindered high revving machines. How the British laughed at them. Within years they were winning all the races. The death knell was sounded when the Honda CB 750 was unveiled in 1968. Here was a four cylinder, overhead cam, disc brake, electric start bike that even today looks right. Even in the 80's Triumph were still producing a parallel twin, push rod Bonneville that leaked oil and shook itself to bits. Don't be fooled by the name. I owned three Bonnevilles and they were all rubbish. Meriden monsters.

Look up the Triumph site on the web. A lot of the names are the same. From Bonneville to Trophy, Daytona to Tiger. Some of them even look the same. However, these are ultra modern reliable bikes that sell all round the World. Triumph even produce the largest capacity bike available anywhere. The Rocket Three (a BSA name) is a three cylinder 2.3 litre monster.

John Bloor is a sensible bloke. He stays in the background and lets his product do all the talking.. and selling. He is not like Dyson and will not take production to the Far East.

I rest my case!

I always wondered why the owner of MG Rover didn't start making MG midgets & Bs with modern components. You could have a wonderfully stylish, yet reliable car & probably knock them out fairly cheaply.

[MarkG]

I always wondered why the owner of MG Rover didn't start making MG midgets & Bs with modern components.

I would imagine that by the time you'd made them pass current crash tests you might as well redesign them from scratch.

[The Masked Tulip]

This is one of those "We make the best carriage buggy whips in the World" type silly questions isn't it. The UK leads the World in the areas of Financial Services. Think about selling all those pensions, life investments, etc, etc, to India, China, etc in the next 100 years.

One of the reasons we no longer 'do manufacturing' is because it can be done cheaper elsewhere and that our economy has moved on to provide even 'higher value' services re the above.

[dunderhead]

JCB.

One of the UK's largest privately-owned manufacturing companies, their yellow diggers can be seen all over the world.

[BuyingBear]

This is one of those "We make the best carriage buggy whips in the World" type silly questions isn't it. The UK leads the World in the areas of Financial Services. Think about selling all those pensions, life investments, etc, etc, to India, China, etc in the next 100 years.

Thank god those diligent Chinese are able to master increasingly complex mathametics and electronics in order design and manufacturer goods yet when it comes to calculating Black-Scholes they just can't get their shit together

[Guest muttley]

I can honestly say I cannot think of any MAJOR british companies that the rest of the world envy us for. Can someone help?

Manchester United