Chapter 701 The New Factory
Yes, Barron was visiting Birmingham when he received the news from Dalula.
Birmingham is the second largest city in England in terms of population and area after London.
And Birmingham is also one of the major manufacturing centers in England.
Its industrial sectors are numerous, mainly heavy industry.
It is also one of the largest metal processing areas in the world. In addition, industries such as machine tools, instruments, carriages, bicycles, aircraft, chemicals, and military industries are also important here.
Birmingham has a large automobile industry, and about a quarter of its residents are related to it. It is called the Detroit of England.
As mentioned before, two of the British Automotive Group's vehicle production bases in England are located in the Birmingham area, namely Land Rover's Solihull factory and Jaguar's Birmingham factory.
Barron indeed just saw the news about Dalula, because before that, he was talking to representatives from the West Midlands about expanding production scale here.
Earlier, Barron talked with Brown about the hope that the British government could provide supportive policies in the manufacturing industry.
In that conversation, he also directly admitted that Britain does not have an advantage compared to many overseas regions in terms of manufacturing, especially manufacturing related to automobile production.
The British Automobile Group needs to face competition from many car companies including Volkswagen and Toyota.
If they hope that they can increase their investment in the UK, in addition to supporting local cars in terms of tariffs, they also need to support the relevant industrial chains, otherwise they can only stay in the UK. The scale of production is limited, and as competition intensifies, there may even be industries relocated overseas.
In fact, not only the British Automobile Group, but also many manufacturing industries are facing this situation. Barron is not just seeking relevant policies for the British Automobile Group, but also hopes to provide support to related industries.
After all, he didn’t want to see Birmingham, the second largest city in England, still go bankrupt like in its previous life.
After this period of discussion, the British side finally introduced relevant support policies as part of a new round of economic recovery stimulus policies.
The West Midlands, where Birmingham is located, is also very active and willing to provide further preferential policies to the British Automobile Group in the hope that they will locate their new vehicle production base there.
When Barron came to Birmingham this time, he talked about this matter with these government representatives and visited the production bases of Land Rover and Jaguar with them.
After all, the Birmingham area has the most complete automobile industry chain in the UK. The local government not only hopes to increase employment, but also hopes that the establishment of the new production base of the British Automobile Group will promote related industrial chains.
“We have plans to gradually upgrade the technology of Land Rover and Jaguar production bases to improve production efficiency, and the newly built vehicle production base can also produce some models of these two brands at the same time - that will It is a high-standard factory with the most advanced automated production lines..."
The team led by the CEO of British Automobile Group is the main force in negotiations with the local government, the other party said during the visit.
The Land Rover Halewood factory where they are currently located was established in 1963 and covers an area of about 300 acres. It is Land Rover's second vehicle production base in the UK.
Earlier than it was the Solihall factory, which was Land Rover's earliest production plant. It was built in 1948 and covers an area of about 308 acres. However, compared with some automobile factories in Germany, the production equipment of these two factories has lagged slightly behind in terms of automation. In order to improve efficiency, there is also a need to upgrade.
As for the new vehicle production base, it is actually mainly to take over the production capacity of the British Automobile Group's production plant in Germany and expand it.
The British Automobile Group took over the Volkswagen Group's car factory in Wolfsburg. However, relatively speaking, that factory has a long history, and the salary cost of German auto workers can be said to be the highest in the world. Therefore, the British Automobile Group will Preparing to close its Wolfsburg plant in Germany.
As for the original workers and technicians there, except for a small number who will come to the factory in Birmingham, most of them have actually been taken over by the China Nanjing Automobile Group.
Nanjing British Automobile, a joint venture between British Motor Group and Nanjing Automobile Group, has been expanding its production scale, and they have launched two models of Land Rover Mountain and Sea and Jaguar Lingyun in China, which are specially designed for the local market. Luxury SUVs and luxury cars are very popular in the market.
For this reason, they hired many technicians and experienced workers from the British Automobile Group's factory in Germany at a high price to ensure the quality of the cars produced in China and to train local workers. .
This has also reduced the considerable expenditure of the British Automobile Group to a certain extent, and also allowed the British Automobile Group to make the decision to close the car factory in Wolfsburg and build a new factory in England.
This new factory will have a highly automated assembly line, which will not only improve its production efficiency, but also reduce the number of workers required. After all, compared with markets like China, the salary costs of British auto workers are much higher. This is also beneficial. Cost control of products produced by Jaguar and Land Rover brands in the UK.
These two brands are different from luxury brands such as Bentley and Aston Martin, which can use "handmade" as a gimmick. Instead, they need more advanced assembly lines to produce in order to compete with brands such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Do not fall behind in the competition.
"I will stay here for two more days, and then I will go to Scotland. If you have time, you can come with me to play."
After making the call, Da Lula heard Barron's invitation...
It would be a lie to say that she was not moved, but what she thought was that if she agreed, then she would meet the "passionate" person between the two that night. In this situation, do you still want to refuse?
"How is it?"
Realizing that His Highness the Duke was still waiting for her answer, Dalula bit her lip, thinking of Barron's gentlemanly demeanor that night, and the regrets she had in retrospect... …
“I am also very curious about those places. In fact, I rarely have the opportunity to travel...”
Dalula said to Barron:
"Should I go find you now? Your Highness the Duke."
"No, just give me your address and I will send someone to pick you up."
It takes almost an hour and a half to go from London to Birmingham. Not long after Dalula hung up the phone , a luxurious Bentley Mulsanne, has arrived below her apartment...
(End of this chapter)