Leyland’s Profits Drifting
18 October 1972
DAILY MIRROR
By Robert Head
Strikes in the coalmines, docks and car factories – to mention but a few – knocked British Leyland Motor’s profits from £32 million last year to between £25 million and £30 million this year. No wonder the boss , Lord Stokes , said yesterday that if he weren’t “an optimist, and a patriot“ he would have jumped from his third floor flat or his sixth floor office long ago.
Whatever profit British Leyland finally shows this year , it won’t add up to much more than £2 on every £100 worth of the company’s sales. By contrast, Marks and Spencer make makes £12 on every £100, Woolworths £11, Butlins £18. Even Tesco in the cut-throat supermarket trade makes £6.
There is more money and less risk in selling things than in making them. Lord Stokes said yesterday: “Building up an industrial organization is not an in and out operation like property speculation.”
Funny he chose those words – for a year ago I called British Leyland “an in and out share rather than a lifetime's investment.”
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Tue, 17 Oct 1972
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Wed, 18 Oct 1972
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Fri, 20 Oct 1972
THE GUARDIAN By GEOFFREY WHITELEY, Northern Labour Correspondent Workers at the BLMC heavy transmissions plant at Basingstoke, Hampshire,...
Wed, 25 Oct 1972
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Sat, 28 Oct 1972
By R. W. Shakespeare More than 700 workers at Thornycroft, the British Leyland heavy transmissions plant at Basingstoke, who have...
Mon, 30 Oct 1972
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