WHEN Hawker multinational bought out Gardner's in 1977, announced 590 redundancies plant, management claimed it was due to 'falling demand vestment'.
Yet demand for Gardner's diesel engines, each individually made by hand, always exceeded supply. A look at the figures does not indicate that Hawker Siddeley faces financial difficulty, either in its overall operation or in its engineering division.
Profits In 1978 Hawker Siddeley's pre-tax profits were £118m; in 1979, £108m; and estimates for this year are £120m (source: Extal Index).
The firm's mechanical engineering division, which includes Gardner's, following in pre-tax 1978, £53.2m; and 1979, £37.1m.
This year Hawker Siddeley's gross paid sales for diesel commodities alone exceeds £1 billion!
Add to this the f115m Hawker Siddeley received in compensation in 1977 when its aerospace division was nationalised and only a fool could believe Sir Arnolds Hall's statement that lack of profits and markets were the Siddeley, the corporation that at the and ingrossed the profits: 1977, £41.6m; reason for redundancies.
The reasons for the run-down of Gardner's have to be sought in other aspects of Hawker Siddeley's commercial operation. Commercial First, any idea that engineering as such is not a commercial priority for Hawker Siddeley can be easily refuted. The multinational has spent the past five years shifting the bulk production aerospace into mechanical engineering.
There has been a major slump in aircraft markets on a world scale; the Hawk MRCA strike aircraft suffered particularly as a result of the revolution in Iran. The same is not true for diesel engines.
Fasco Industries, sive in selling Product away 'Demand Gardner's is not the only diesel firm that Hawker Siddeley has acquired recently. It has bought three major US-based diesel firms -Westinghouse, and Onan Corporation. There is no doubt that Hawker Siddeley is planning a major offendiesel equipment, probably mainly to the third world.
So why is Gardner's being run-down? It is certainly nothing to do with the quality of the product. The Financial Times had this to say about Gardner's engines: "They are the Rolls Royce of diesel engines, every part is individually made by hand.
far outstrips supply' 'Gardner's engines are not cheap Quality Equality, or in Gardner's.
the markets as possible.
Sir Arnold tionalisation' policy' them Hawker Siddeley paid.
and saic any wnere. reliability.' The article, on 28 August, added that 'about 10,000 second hand Gardner's engines chug up and down Hong Kong harbour in local fishing boats'. Finally it pointed out - but they are quite simply the best there are.?
Yet Hawker Siddeley is not interested in It is planning to use its newly acquired American companies for its new drive for markets, and probably just wants Gardner's out of the way to cut down the competition.
This is a typical operation on the part of a multinational out to get as large a share of the Hall, Hawker Siddeley supremo, put it this way: 'When we take over a company we operate a 'post acquisitive raIn short Gardner's will be stripped of all its useful assets and technological know-how; its engines will be removed from the markets to a considerable extent, and then the company will again be sold, probably for less As long as international corporations can shuffle capital from one country to another like a pack of cards, no worker's job will be Photo: Mornina Star