Ambassador finds out what West Midlands can offer German firms

Mar 23 2009 by Alun Thorne, Birmingham Post

One of the British Embassy’s most eminent ambassadors visited the region last week to see how the West Midlands continues to attract foreign investment.

Sir Michael Arthur – the British ambassador to Germany – visited the BMW engine plant at Hams Hall in Warwickshire as part of a tour organised by the British Consulate-General in Dusseldorf, arranged by regional development agency Advantage West Midlands. He also visited Bosch Thermotechnology in Worcester.

During his visit to BMW, Sir Michael was taken around the Hams Hall manufacturing facilities which play a crucial role in the company’s international production network. The tour provided an opportunity for Sir Michael to meet some of the plant’s 800 staff who gave him an insight into the complexity and efficiency of the plant’s engineering processes.

The Hams Hall plant continues to be an important part in the region’s automotive sector. The West Midlands is still responsible for a third of all UK automotive industry production with some 1,500 companies employing 114,000 people in the sector.

Hams Hall is the BMW Group’s global centre of competence for the production of all four-cylinder petrol engines for both BMW and Mini vehicles and supplies engines to the Mini production plant at Oxford and to BMW plants in Germany, Austria and South Africa. Like the majority of car manufacturers, BMW has seen sales plunge over the past year and earlier this month the company posted a 91 per cent fall in pre-tax profits. Last month the company also laid off hundreds of agency workers from its Mini plant in Cowley, Oxfordshire.

Sir Michael also met Birmingham City Council leader and AWM board member, Mike Whitby, who was keen to discuss the 400 German companies who have already invested in the region and what measures are in place to help the UK’s second city weather the considerable storm of the economic downturn.

Upon his return to Germany, Sir Michael will encourage middle-sized companies there to look to the future, beyond the global recession, and see what the West Midlands has to offer for their business.

Sir Michael said: “Medium-sized companies are the backbone of the German economy. Many of these businesses are family owned, well capitalised and often world leaders in their field. Even now they are looking to expand so that they are in a good position once the economy picks up again. Our aim is to convince them that the UK ­– and the West Midlands in particular – is the place to be.”

Dr Richard Hutchins, corporate director of economic development from Advantage West Midlands, added: “The West Midlands provides a hub of opportunity for many international businesses, so visits like this provide a great platform for showcasing exactly what the region has to offer.

“The West Midlands has already attracted around 400 companies from Germany and we hope that Sir Michael’s visit will encourage more.”

Plant director at BMW Hams Hall, Robert Bolam, said: “The very considerable challenges facing the automotive sector are well-known and so, too, are the factors that will help to see us through these difficult times.

“Our investment in developing and manufacturing the most fuel-efficient engines in their class and the flexibility and skills of our West Midlands workforce gives us the confidence to believe we will be well-placed to take advantage of the economic recovery when markets eventually return to normal.”