Manufacturing a better British future

UP high on a gantry, with microphone in hand, Lord Digby Jones gestures to his audience to move closer.

He’s in a jovial mood; countless people are given waves, the odd one a wink of the eye.

Whipping off a navy cover to unveil a plaque heralding a freezer factory opening, he continues his elaborate twirling, joking he’s a matador in a Strictly Come Dancing routine.

The people gathered are lapping up his performance.

The son of a Birmingham shopkeeper, Lord Jones honed his business skills working in his father’s store, and the former CBI chief and trade minister is a staunch supporter of British industry.

His maverick spirit and business focus are delivered with a populist and down-to-earth style.

He’s at Ebac, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, for the official opening of its Norfrost chest freezer factory.

It’s a place he knows well.

Earlier this year, his BBC Two show, Digby Jones: The New Troubleshooter, followed Ebac’s progress intently.

It focused on how the family-run firm brought the range from the Scottish Highlands to Aycliffe, and how equipment faults, particularly problems with a foam maker, caused delays, leaving the House of Lords crossbencher far from amused.

But progress has now been made, and his earlier jig of delight was, as he tells The Northern Echo, just a brief insight into his burning passion and enthusiasm towards business.

What inspired you to do the television programme?

“I wanted to put business on the map.

“A business programme is not a man in a Rolls-Royce getting out of his car and yelling ‘you’re fired’ at young people.

“It is about a lot more than that, business is about companies working in a community, employing people and generating wealth.

“We have got to get out of the idea that making profit is a bad thing, there’s nothing wrong with it.

“Without it you don’t get taxes that pay for hospitals and schools.

“This is what real people do, and I wanted to get that idea across, and get young people to relate to that.

“I wanted the series to be about real people, doing business in a real way.

“I didn’t want it in the South-East, where a crash (pronounced crèche) is something between two Land Rovers.

“I wanted it here, and I wanted it to be warts and all, and not like The Apprentice or Dragons’ Den.

“It succeeded, and it never crossed my mind that Ebac wouldn’t succeed either.

“I admire the company; they got on with it and are not frightened to make decisions.

“As a company, it is emblematic of good business and I’m very proud of them.

How is the British manufacturing industry?

“If this great nation and this great region is going to succeed in a time when China wants to eat our lunch and India wants to eat our dinner, if we are going to create jobs for our children, and our children’s children, we have got to have business emblems.

“We need totems what people can relate to and think about firms are aspiring to.

“The greatest way to do that is manufacturing, because people can touch, they can feel it, and they can smell it.

“Manufacturing is doing really well in the UK at the moment.

“However, one area I don’t think we are as good as we could be covers exports.

“Whenever we go overseas, we should always think exports, and how we can do business a favour.

“One of the biggest challenges is getting enough skilled people, but another is that manufacturing needs certainty.

“We have got to end the uncertainty about the EU, whether we are in or out.”

Would North-East businesses benefit it the region was given more powers to shape its own future?

“The North-East has to compete to attract more jobs against some very good competitors.

“It has its heritage, from ships to steel and back again, but has the same competition as everywhere else.

“We have to bury all the rivalry about where people live in the North-East and go forward.

“We have got to take the fight to Westminster, especially in this region because its borders are so close to Scotland.

“We need as much, if not more, than Scotland.

“They have had it all their own way for the last few weeks, and we need our time in the sun.

“The North-East has got to say it matters and show how successful it can be, and then we need to get our children’s skills up to perpetuate it.

“Everyone has been talking about Scotland, but I want to see people talking about here.

“They sit down there in London and think ‘Middlesbrough, Sunderland and Newcastle? They all hate each other, so we’ll let them get on with it.’”

What can the Government do to support business?

“Business needs some help on the job creation front.

After years of sticking to and tolerating unpopular policies, after years of the amazing British workforce getting stuck in and delivering the goods for no extra reward, our country is on the threshold of reaping the benefits.

“The Coalition should take its fair share of the plaudits for that.

“But we are not completely out of the woods yet; the number of the economically inactive isn't falling; pay rises, except in manufacturing, are not yet filtering through, and they need to, and quickly, so everyone feels that they are sharing in this new, beneficial economic vista.

Does it disappoint you that companies, such as Japan’s Nissan and Hitachi Rail Europe, are the main drivers of job creation in the region?

“Do not underestimate the importance of Nissan to the North-East.

“That company is here to stay; they have put stuff down for payback in ten years, not ten minutes.

“From that, the community can do things, they buy products and go to restaurants, because they know the company is here for a long time.

“I could not care where Nissan or Hitachi are from, what matters is that they are here.

“Jaguar Land Rover is owned by Indians, and the industry is globalised because we are in an open society.

“What I care enormously about is that politicians create an environment and bust a gut so they can continue to be here and not in France.

“I want them to do it here.”

You touched on skills. How critical is the need to improve those in manufacturing?

“We have to get out into the towns and cities and tell young people that if they increase their skills, they will make money.

“If they don’t, they are toast.

“The message must be that you have to be prepared to come to work and learn.

“But an educated and skilled workforce does not mean degrees.

“We need more youngsters starting apprenticeships, rather than starting a degree, and we have to get it right.”

You previously criticised the media’s portrayal of business. Has it changed?

“It is changing, but I still think people believe The Apprentice is a business programme.

“They couldn’t be more wrong, it’s light entertainment.

“I become very frustrated when I see how business people are portrayed on television, because business gets on the agenda though facile entertainment like The Apprentice.

“Which business in modern Britain is run like that? You wouldn't last five minutes.

“But the coverage is better than it used to be.”