Farewell to summer and hello to a new season of optimism

I am writing this month’s blog at the tail end of my summer holiday on the southernmost tip of Spain, just 12 miles across the straits to North Africa. Such a tranquil setting is the perfect backdrop to reflect on the busy trading season that we are about to embark on, as well as the prospects for our industry as a whole.

The beginning of September has brought a raft of good news stories for the global economy and the UK in particular. Vodafone selling its American business delivers a whopping £85 billion to shareholders, the majority of whom are in the UK. As is the norm nowadays with multinational companies, they will be deftly avoiding UK capital gains tax. However, an injection of liquidity on this scale into the economy is sure to have a positive effect.

There is further good news on the European front, as Microsoft buys Nokia for £5 billion. Even footballers are changing hands for staggering sums of money, with the total spent by Premier League clubs in the transfer window being somewhere north of £600 million. Rolls Royce and Bentley dealers should brace themselves for the invasion!

Which brings me nicely to the recent edition of BBC television’s Top Gear, which focussed on the current state of the UK car and commercial vehicle industries. Who could fail to be impressed by that huge fleet of British built vehicles that lined the Mall? Clear evidence, if ever there was any doubt, that Britain is a world class player in the automotive business once again.

To build on this success, we need a high percentage of the billions of pounds arriving in shareholders’ accounts to be re-invested in our manufacturing base. By creating opportunities for well-paid and highly skilled manufacturing and engineering jobs, we will begin to reverse the downward spiral of a low skill, low pay economy.

The banks also have an important role to play in this. I recently heard a respected economist liken bankers to toddlers. They run around in an excited frenzy, causing mayhem until they run out of energy and leave the room in a total mess. They then lie down and pretend that none of the mess left behind was their fault, and in any case, someone else will always clear it up for them.

The recent troubles at the Coop Bank illustrate that there will be consequences for banking profligacy in the future. Hopefully, this will encourage them to take a longer term and more measured view of their actions. Whilst there will always be a place for new shopping centres and housing developments, increased importance must be given to new manufacturing facilities, in order to harness the skills and talents that, as a nation, we have always possessed.

From high value consumer products to components and sub-systems for the automotive and aerospace industries, we still design and manufacture a great deal in the UK. All of these products and parts require surface preparation, cleaning, deburring, powder coating and all of the other processes that our own industry does so well. The greater the emphasis for investors on British made goods, the greater the benefit will be for industries like our own.

Tomorrow I will be leaving my Spanish sojourn for the grit, grime and graft of good old Birmingham. It is a journey that, for once, I will make with a great deal of optimism for the months and years ahead.