The Global Service & Manufacturing Group - News

Business Secretary Co-Chairs His First Automotive Council Meeting

The Business Secretary Vince Cable welcomed news today (1 July) that General Motors (GM) has signed a number of deals worth over £100 million to bring more manufacturing work back to suppliers in the UK.

Dr Cable responded to the news while attending his first meeting of the Automotive Council as co-chair. Other Automotive Council Members include the Chief Executives or Chairmen of Ford, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Bentley, Aston Martin, GM Vauxhall, Jaguar Landrover, Honda Caterpillar and Paccar.

Barry Dodd, Chief Executive of the GSM Group is one of three first tier suppliers represented on the Council, GKN and Bosch are the other two.

Expanding and growing the UK’s supply chain is a key objective of one of the Council’s working groups which is chaired by Bill Parfitt from GM UK.

The Business Secretary said: “The Automotive Council is a good model of how sectors can work in partnership with the Government to tackle issues strategically. This is the sort of relationship I want Government to have with industry and this Council’s approach is one that could be used by other sectors particularly those that use low carbon technology.

“I’m delighted that SMEs in the UK will benefit from these contracts from GM. It shows that they can compete and win business from big corporate companies that trade all over the world.”

Bill Parfitt, Chairman and CEO of Vauxhall Motors and GM UK who also chairs the Automotive Council Supply Chain Group said: “The creation of the Automotive Council and the renewed focus on manufacturing has re-emphasised that the UK is a key sourcing location.

“We were able to award these contracts because of the excellent quality, lower transportation costs and because each contract showed a beneficial business case.”

These contracts will be worth over £100m in total over the life of the contracts.