Chapter 701 New Factory
Yes, Barron was visiting Birmingham when he received Talulah's message.
Birmingham is the second largest city in the whole of England, second only to London in terms of population and area.
And Birmingham is also one of the main manufacturing centers in England.
It has many industrial sectors, mainly heavy industry.
It is also one of the largest metal processing areas in the world. In addition, machine tools, instruments, carriages, bicycles, aircraft, chemicals, military industry and other industries are also important here.
Birmingham's automobile industry is very large, and about a quarter of the residents' occupations are related to it. It is called the Detroit of England.
As mentioned before, the British Automobile Group has two complete vehicle production bases in the UK located in the Birmingham area, namely Land Rover's Solihull plant and Jaguar's Birmingham plant.
Barron did just see Talulah's news just now, because before that, he talked with representatives from the West Midlands about expanding production here.
Earlier, Barron talked to Brown about the hope that the British government would provide support policies in the manufacturing industry.
During that conversation, he also directly admitted that the manufacturing industry in the UK, especially the manufacturing related to automobile production, is not superior to many overseas regions.
And the British Automobile Group needs to face competition from many car companies including Volkswagen and Toyota.
If he hopes to increase investment in the UK, then in addition to supporting local cars in terms of tariffs, related industrial chains need to be supported, otherwise they can only stay in the UK with a limited production scale, and even with the intensification of competition, there may be industrial relocation.
In fact, it is not just the British Automobile Group, many manufacturing industries are facing such a situation. Barron is not only seeking relevant policies for the British Automobile Group, but also hopes to support related industries.
After all, he does not want to see Birmingham, the second largest city in the UK, still go bankrupt as in the 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 willing to provide further preferential policies for the British Automobile Group, hoping that they will settle the new vehicle production base in the local area.
This time when he came to Birmingham, Barron talked about this with the representatives of these governments, and visited the Land Rover and Jaguar production bases here with them.
After all, the Birmingham area has the most complete automotive 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 can promote the relevant industry chain.
"We plan to gradually upgrade the technology of the production bases of Land Rover and Jaguar to improve production efficiency, and the newly built vehicle production base can also produce some models of these two brands at the same time-it will be a high-standard factory with the most advanced automated production lines..."
The team led by the CEO of the British Automobile Group is the main force in the negotiations with the local government, and the other party said so during the visit.
The Land Rover Halewood plant where they are currently located was established in 1963, covering an area of about 300 acres. It is Land Rover's second vehicle production base in the UK.
Earlier than it is the Solihall plant, which is Land Rover's earliest production plant. It was built in 1948 and covers an area of about 308 acres.
However, compared with some German automobile factories, the production equipment of these two factories is slightly behind in automation. In order to improve efficiency, there is also a need for upgrading.
As for the new vehicle production base, it is actually mainly to undertake the production capacity of the British Automobile Group's production plant in Germany and expand it.
At the beginning, the British Automobile Group took over the Volkswagen Group's automobile factory in Wolfsburg, but relatively speaking, that factory has a long history, and the salary cost of German automobile workers can be said to be the highest in the world. Therefore, the British Automobile Group is preparing to close the Wolfsburg factory in Germany.
As for the original workers and technicians there, except for a small number of them who will come to the Birmingham factory, most of them have actually been taken over by the Huaxia Nanqi Group.
The joint venture between British Motor Group and Nanjing Automobile Group, Nanjing British Automobile, has been expanding its production scale, and they have launched two models in China, Land Rover Shanhai and Jaguar Lingyun, which are specially designed for the local market. They are luxury SUV and luxury sedan respectively, which are very popular in the market.
For this reason, they hired many technicians and experienced workers from British Motor Group's German factory 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 British Motor Group to a certain extent, and it can also make British Motor Group determined to close the car factory in Wolfsburg and build a new factory in Britain.
This new factory will use a highly automated assembly line, which will not only improve its production efficiency, but also reduce the number of workers required - after all, the salary cost of British car workers is much higher than that of markets such as China, and this will also help the cost control of products produced by Jaguar and Land Rover in Britain.
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.
"I will stay here for two more days and then go to Scotland. If you have time, you can come with me to play."
After the call was connected, Talulah 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 if she met the situation of "passion" between the two of them that night again, would she still refuse?
"How is it?"
Realizing that His Royal Highness was still waiting for her answer, Talulah bit her lip, thinking of Barron's gentlemanly demeanor that night, and the regret she had afterwards...
"I am also very curious about those places. In fact, I rarely have the opportunity to travel..."
Talulah said to Barron:
"Shall I go to you now, Your Royal Highness?"
"No, give me your address and I will send someone to pick you up."
It takes about an hour and a half to get from London to Birmingham. Not long after Talulah hung up the phone, a luxurious Bentley Mulsanne had arrived downstairs of her apartment...
