Chinese Weetabix

By : Administrator
Published 3rd May 2012 |
Read latest comment - 4th May 2012

Poor old UK, the French own our power utilities, the Indians own Jaguar and Landrover, and now the Chinese have snapped up our Weetabix!

BBC News - Weetabix bought by China's Bright Food

I dunno, what's it all coming to....

Steve Richardson
Gaffer of My Local Services
My Local Services | Me on LinkedIn
Comments
Darn. On a similar note though, the name kinda caught my attention. You guys have got weetabix, we have weet-bix. Coincidence maybe? Bokomo

Its quite a large chunk going to Bright Foods though.

Thanks,
Dreamraven

Well as long as they keep the production of weetabix in the UK I guess nothing will change, but if production moves to China because of labour costs it will have a dreadful effect, as that will probably end up costing another 5000 UK Jobs.

Thanks,
Barney

Darn. On a similar note though, the name kinda caught my attention. You guys have got weetabix, we have weet-bix. Coincidence maybe?

Well I never...

"...the original concept for the whole-grain wheat breakfast cereal was developed in the 1920s by Bennison Osborne in Australia.

In 1930 Mr Osborne and his partner Malcolm Macfarlane sold the Australian and New Zealand rights for what they called 'Weet-Bix' to the Sanitarium Health Food Company.
They then formed another company which began manufacturing in the UK at Burton Latimer, near Kettering, Northamptonshire, in 1932. They renamed the product Weetabix for the British market."

Weetabix, the next Chinese takeaway | Mail Online

As Barney says, fingers crossed about jobs, although the same link above talks about Lotus...

"Last week it emerged that the British sports car firm Lotus is under threat of being sold to China, putting 1,400 UK jobs at risk."

Steve Richardson
Gaffer of My Local Services
My Local Services | Me on LinkedIn

Poor old UK, the French own our power utilities, the Indians own Jaguar and Landrover, and now the Chinese have snapped up our Weetabix!

BBC News - Weetabix bought by China's Bright Food

I dunno, what's it all coming to....

I think it's great.

Most folk would say I'm contrarian but I really believe foreign investment - and the UK has by far the most in the EU I'd guess if not up there globally - is a good thing.

When you think the shape the Eurozone is in right now, isn't it good that America, Japanese, Indian, Chinese companies are investing in us? Whilst there's no doubting that profits can (and are) often transferred back to holding companies based in these economies, it's well worth remembering this profit is taxed.

I've seen this in Oil & Gas myself in the North Sea, where more and more companies are foreign. Not only are they spending money acquiring our companies and knowledge, they're hiring/retaining our people and allowing us to export our capabilities to other economies.

I'm a strong supporter of FDI - the alternative e.g government ownership, isn't worth contemplating for me. We've been there and it's not good.

Thanks,
Lion

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