People think Britain doesn't build anything

[Hood]

How many of them are actually UK owned?

Kind of like the Scotch Whisky industry, think India is one of the biggest owners. It is a global economy now and us wee guys are mere pawns no matter which country you live in.

 

[Rannsachair]

I was surprised to find that manufacturing peaked around 2000:

Though there are far fewer manufacturing jobs now due to automation: CNC machining centers, robot welders etc.

 

[fizzy]

How many of them are actually UK owned?

Plenty! In fact most of them!!!

 

[fizzy]

Kind of like the Scotch Whisky industry, think India is one of the biggest owners. It is a global economy now and us wee guys are mere pawns no matter which country you live in.

Diageo own most of the distillers and they are a huge British company. They are the biggest distillers in the world.. See people think Britain doesnt own or build anything its just not true!

 

[Hood]

Diageo own most of the distillers and they are a huge British company. They are the biggest distillers in the world.. See people think Britain doesnt own or build anything its just not true!

And like most large companies they are really multinational and dislike paying taxes.

 

[fizzy]

And like most large companies they are really multinational and dislike paying taxes.

Well of course!
But don't forget taxes are only on profits. These big companies still pay a fortune in rates. National Insurance contributions and a myriad of other taxes. Corporation tax is a small part of the costs.

 

[Hood]

Well of course!
But don't forget taxes are only on profits. These big companies still pay a fortune in rates. National Insurance contributions and a myriad of other taxes. Corporation tax is a small part of the costs.

I better stop commenting or your thread will get locked and I do not wish that to happen

 

[waddycall]

Triumph motorbikes are doing pretty well. Who would have thought a company in the UK could start from scratch against the dominant Japanese? 54000 sold last year not bad going!

Don’t they have a factory in Thailand?

Edit - found this https://riders.drivemag.com/features/triumph-motorcycles-thailand-factory-visit

 

[zeppelin builder]

Pretty good right enough until you compare to Honda @ 17.6

Them rice burners will never catch on said churchill bsa m20 is the finest machine
I was chased out of dundee by angry shipyard commies but they just couldnt keep up with the khaki flyer i was hitting 60 mph with bonnet reversed and cigar lighting up the road ahead i made it to london 5 days later and got the job the rest is history
Me and my chums destroyed the hun then sold them all the latest machine tools . no good for us i said weve still got plenty files left i like to see our guys sweating good old british engineering. that lathe over there is only 75 years old
Millions of square nuts and witworth bolts later we are here with almost no engineering industry sad isnt it

 

[daleyd]

How many of them are actually UK owned?

Quite a few, though obviously not all.

I’d rather we had the ( usually well paying) jobs and didn’t own them than not have anything at all, if that’s the choice.

 

[Fazerruss]

Surprised no one's mentioned the British welding manufacturer. TecArc
I'm the proud owner of an Oxford TIG and a Triumph motorcycle

 

[fizzy]

And I just read about another great British export that has earned us billions. Viagra!

 

[mcostello]

Viagra-British? Brings new meaning to a stiff upper lip!

 

[Dieselman 63]

Henry Numatic vacuums are still made in the UK, and I believe we make ore steel nowadays than we used t, but it's for more specialised uses such as nuclear reactor castings

 

[eternal optimist]

Well of course!
But don't forget taxes are only on profits. These big companies still pay a fortune in rates. National Insurance contributions and a myriad of other taxes. Corporation tax is a small part of the costs.

Excellent point, well made. The (pretty much complete) lack of general understanding in the UK about how wealth is created is (in my view) a real barrier to progress. The politics of envy are as ugly as outright greed and selfishness - which applies as equally to the (stereotypical) greedy banker and lazy benefits cheat.

Things get made and people get services delivered because someone somewhere decided to put all their money at risk in order to start a business. If a business owner can reduce taxes paid and divert the money into investing in the business then that’s entirely rational. And if they choose to buy a yacht instead, the money’s not been destroyed; it’s been put into someone else’s pocket.

Anyhow, back on topic, Britain still makes a lot of stuff; good, well invested factories are bright, clean, and efficient, and the consequence of that investment is the canteen is generally a whole lot smaller. People conflate manufacturing output with manufacturing jobs.

 

[owas]

Im fairly certain the company i work for is one of the main steel scaffolding board suppliers, though i havnt actually looked into it.

I personly can get through about 10 tonne worth a day if im on them, and were never short of orders.

 

[rcx132]

It does generate massive income. London is still the financial capital of the world. No wonder the Russian billionaires all live there!

I reckon this is the only reason we are still a major power, a long financial history with far reaching tentacles.

 

[GW8IZR]

I reckon this is the only reason we are still a major power, a long financial history with far reaching tentacles.

As I'm getting older I find my tentacles reach further ......

 

[Richard.]

Part of my job is visiting places where people make stuff with welders. There ain’t as many as there once were granted but there are a lot of them. People who don’t get about to see them will not know about the true volume of them.
We have taken big hits in steel in recent years and there ain’t the tool manufacturers around like there once was. Ship yards have declined but there are still some about.
I could reel off hundreds of companies from tiny to huge that manufacture in my industry sector in uk. I’m not saying it’s like it was once we all know that. I’m not saying it pays like it once did either we know this too. But there is more of it going on than people who are not out and about every day like me actually know about.

 

[bricol]

At the moment, the company I work for has the largest number of employees it's ever had in it's close to hundred year history, never mind all the temps! We've had to extend the canteen, the parking, twice, and take back the ex-foundry we sold 20 yrs ago. Hundreds of our suppliers are busy up and down the entire country. I can't get anything made quick from our normal supplier base as they are so busy. We struggle to get machinists, fitters, designers, mechanical and electrical. We take on apprentices every year - you would have seen some of them on one of the Breakfast TV programmes last year as they prepared for WorldSkills. We export all over the place - from Russia, to China, Japan, the US (I'm off there next week to commision a machine and train operators), Australia, Colombia (that was an interesting trip), Cambodia, Vietnam, Nigeria (even more interesting trip!) . . .

But we are hidden down a dead end road, other side of railway, between a canal and river . . . so in driving past on the main road, you'd never know we are here. So I don't quite agree we don't make anything. The UK makes an awful lot that is relevant for today in todays world.