Best of British!

Nov 18 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

FOR many, it will be welcome news that engineering firm David Brown is back in British hands after being sold by its American owners.

It is indeed fitting that a Huddersfield business with roots going back to 1860 should be out of foreign control.

Scottish-based Clyde Blowers is showing remarkable faith by embarking in these troubled times on a deal worth hundreds of millions.

But as anyone in Huddersfield could tell them, why shouldn’t they have confidence in this firm?

David Brown is one of the most famous and trusted names in industry – a name with a reputation that spans the globe, a byword for excellence.

Its products and its workers are second to none.

Ordinarily, the very mention of the word takeover throws the future of an entire workforce into uncertainty – as it has done with the thousands of staff employed by HBOS in Yorkshire who are pawns in the crisis which has engulfed the banking sector.

All the right noises are being made by Clyde Bowers in terms of investment and a boost for British business. Its boss talks of tremendous potential for the business.

Time will tell. But, as things stand, there seems to be much to say for the change of ownership.

We can only hope that all will go well, and that workers and their new employers enjoy a fruitful and happy co-operation.