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brother

Home / Posts Tagged "brother"

Tag: brother

Lessons from the decline of Japanese electronics manufacturing in the UK for the automotive industry

Although around 10,000 manufacturing jobs in Japanese electronics companies in  the UK were lost in the 1990s-2000s, about the same number have been added, either created by Hitachi Rail or in the automotive or air conditioning sectors. Japanese electronics companies such as Sony, Fujitsu, Panasonic, NEC, Mitsubishi Electric and Hitachi still all employ thousands of people in the UK.

It is a story of how industrial policy cannot ultimately stop product obsolescence, shifts of manufacturing to cheaper locations or the transformation from mass manufacturing of products to supply chain ecosystems providing solutions and services. Recent investment from Japan in the UK is in services and infrastructure, for the domestic UK market, and at least for now, the EU. But this has meant fewer jobs in the areas that voted Brexit.

Bunging £10s of millions at Nissan to compensate for tariffs was not going to stop these shifts. Over 10% of the 7,000 Nissan employ in the UK are working in design centres, not on the factory floor. Being a gateway to the EU now, even in manufacturing, needs regulatory alignment and free movement of people so suppliers can visit and base themselves at client sites and provide services and ship prototypes around the region.

The shift to electric vehicles means the car companies have to cooperate more than ever with ICT and electronics companies. Many of these ICT and electronics companies have joint European HQs spread across the UK, Netherlands or Germany, with senior management and teams scattered across the region, working virtually or at customer and partner sites. They have also integrated back office and technical support into cheaper locations such as Portugal or Poland.

Some examples of the history of Japanese electronics companies in the UK over the past 30 years:

Fujitsu

Fujitsu is the biggest Japanese employer in the UK with over 8,000 employees, 2,000 down on a few years ago, as it grows delivery and support centres in Portugal, South Africa and India and downsizes in the UK. It acquired 80% of UK’s ICL in 1990 (increasing to 100% 1998). ICL had 2,000 UK employees, 26,000 worldwide, with mainframe and PC factories in Letchworth, Manchester and the Midlands.  ICL was born out of 1960s industrial policy – the British government had a 10% stake in it for a while. To this day, Fujitsu provides a lot of  government IT infrastructure and services. Its last computer factory in Europe, in Augsburg in Germany, will shut down in 2019, retaining manufacturing in Japan only.

Hitachi

Hitachi used to employ around 1,000 people in its factory in Aberdare, Wales, making cathode ray TVs, video recorders and microwave ovens. It was shut in 2001, blaming low price competition from Asia. Hitachi has since shifted away from consumer products to infrastructure. In the UK it acquired the now stalled Horizon Nuclear Power projects in Wylfa and Oldbury and set up Hitachi Rail in the UK as the global headquarters with a new factory in Newton Aycliffe, employing nearly 2,000 people.

Hitachi employs another 4,000 people in the UK services sector – for example credit and loans company Hitachi Capital, IT consultants Hitachi Vantara and Hitachi Consulting and Vantec, providing logistics for Nissan.

Sony

Sony came to the UK in 1973, and had 2 plants in Pencoed making cathode ray TVs, employing 1,800 by the 1990s. As these started to shut down, Pencoed transformed itself into an innovation centre, developing and producing broadcast and professional equipment, employing 500-600 people.

Sony has been restructuring across Europe recently, consolidating back office functions into cheaper regions. It was still manufacturing DVDs in Enfield in the UK but this was shifted to Austria in 2017/8, reducing capital in UK by over £250m. It still employs nearly 2,000 in its music, home entertainment and interactive businesses in the UK.

Ricoh

Ricoh still has a factory in Telford (and two other plants in UK), employing the same number of people in 2018 as in 1991 – around 700 – but the product range has shifted from faxes to printers and consumables.

Mitsubishi Electric

Mitsubishi Electric acquired Apricot Computers in 1990, with a plant in Glenrothes and R&D in Birmingham, employing 442 in 1991. Glenrothes was shut in 1999, blaming cheap competition in Asia. It still has manufacturing in the UK, employing nearly 1,000 people (many of whom are non-UK EU citizens) in Livingston, at its airconditioning plant.

Panasonic

Panasonic, formerly known as Matsushita, had many plants in UK from 1970s to 1990s, employing 1,621 in Cardiff (TVs, microwaves), 469 in Gwent (electric typewriters, carphones), 160 in Port Talbot (components for TVs, video recorders, microwaves) and 63 in Reading (fax machines).  Most Matsushita/Panasonic plants in UK shut down in early 2000s, with production shifting to Eastern Europe. 1 plant remains in Wales, employing 400 people, manufacturing microwave ovens but also conducting R&D into fuel cell technology.  Panasonic has acquired Belgian IT company Zetes and Spanish automotive supplier Ficosa recently.

NEC

NEC is also shifting into IT services via European acquisitions. It used to have a semiconductor plant in Livingston (Silicon Glen, remember that?) which employed 1200 by 2001, when it shut down. NEC UK employees now number over 1000 again thanks to the acquisition of Northgate Public Services, in 2018.

Others

Oki Electric were relatively late in shutting down their Cumbernauld printer plant in 2018 – and now all production is in Asia.  JVCKenwood shut down their East Kilbride TV/CD player factory in 2008 and shifted production to Poland. Pioneer closed its CD player/TV factory in Wakefield in 2009. Toshiba had a factory in Plymouth, which used to make TVs, video recorders, but is now owned by a US company and makes air conditioners. Sharp (now owned by a Taiwanese company) still has a factory in Wrexham as does Brother.

 

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“Go for it!” companies in Japan – new and old

You have to have (octopus) balls in Osaka

Vorkers, the Japanese equivalent to Glassdoor, an online site where employees rate their employers, has just announced its annual rankings of companies in Japan where employees are most engaged.  Diamond magazine has analysed the rankings from the point of view of the regional cultures in Japan.  As noted in a previous post, regional cultures are strong in Japan, and have an impact on corporate cultures.

Diamond magazine notes that Osaka companies are prominent in the top 5 – namely Suntory at #2 and Itochu at #4.  Both have over a hundred year history as Kansai region “merchant” companies and Diamond says this “yatte minahare” (Osaka dialect for “go for it” or translated by Suntory as “follow your nature”) spirit is still evident in the employee comments.  If you like a challenge in your work, these are the kind of companies to join.  “You might get told off by your boss for not doing something, but you don’t get told off if you tried to do something and couldn’t” says one female employee in planning.

Brother, at #15, has its headquarters in Nagoya, the capital of the Midlands of Japan, where many automotive companies are also based.  Founded in 1908, initially as a machine repair workshop, Brother is now most famous for its printers.  80% of its sales are overseas.

Brother employees say that “there has been a big change over the past 5 years.  Overseas travel and secondment is positively encouraged.  It’s the best place for someone who wants to work globally.” (Male, product development).  “Fundamentally the bosses and my seniors are mostly good people.  There is a culture of using surname-san (rather than more formal job titles – see our post on this) and therefore there is not such a formal atmosphere” (female, sales)

As for the newer companies, one to look out for is Uzabase at #33.  It was founded 10 years ago and provides platforms for business intelligence such as NewsPicks.  Employees rate it highly for allowing individual freedom and responsibility.

These are not characteristics traditionally thought to be sought by Japanese employees or prevalent in Japanese companies.  Diamond says the comments on Vorkers show employees praise their companies for developing them as individuals, to allow them to take up all kinds of challenges and forgive mistakes. This is a sign of how the Japanese workplace will need to be when most jobs can be done on a computer, now that overtime is being cracked down on and productivity is being emphasised, to enable both the company and its employees to grow.

 

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Why work for a Japanese company? (#1) Corporate Social Responsibility

For most Japanese companies, despite recent changes to corporate governance and the occasional scandal, the main motivation is the long term survival of the firm, not shareholder value maximisation.

Obviously you have to make some money to invest back into the company to survive, but above all longevity means being a good citizen in the environment and communities you operate in. There are some exceptions to this of course, but by and large, Japanese companies are pretty sincere about corporate social responsibility, to the point where I used to joke when I worked in corporate communications in a Japanese IT company, that if we didn’t watch out, our mission statement would be identical to every other Japanese technology company’s mission statement as it could be summarised as “contributing to society through innovation”.

So if you are looking to work for a company that will be supportive of your wish to make a positive contribution to society, then you may find Japanese companies congenial places to work.

Some are more active in CSR than others, so when Toyo Keizai has published its latest rankings by industry, we matched these to our Top 30 Europe, UK and Germany largest Japanese employers rankings and put them in rank order as below.

As Toyo Keizai points out, it is easier for manufacturers to score highly in their CSR rankings, which is why they dominate the top 50 overall, and also why Toyo Keizai publishes rankings by industry, to ensure like for like comparisons are made.  Banking and financial services are not included in their analysis. Toyo Keizai explains its scoring system (in Japanese) here.  It has around 150 criteria, across the categories of diversity (gender, age, disability), environment, corporate governance and social contribution.

  • Fujifilm – #1 overall and #1 in pulp/paper/chemicals
  • Canon #4 overall and #1 in electronics and fine engineering
  • Denso #8 overall and #1 in automotive
  • Ricoh #9 overall and #3 in electronics and fine engineering
  • Konica Minolta #12 overall and #4 in electronics and fine engineering
  • Honda #14 overall and #2 in automotive
  • Nissan #17 overall and #3 in automotive
  • Daiichi Sankyo #25 overall and #1 in pharmaceuticals
  • Toyota #28 overall and #4 in automotive
  • Fujitsu #30 overall and #9 in electronics and fine engineering
  • Astellas #34 overall and #2 in pharmaceuticals
  • Sumitomo Rubber 36th overall and #2 in oil/rubber/glass/ceramics
  • Mitsubishi Corporation #42 overall and #1 among trading companies
  • Lixil 44th overall and #1 in metal products
  • Sony #45 overall and #12 in electronics and fine engineering
  • Nidec #49 overall and #13 in electronics and fine engineering
  • Takeda #50 overall and #4 in pharmaceuticals
  • Sumitomo Electric Industries #52 overall and #2 in metal products
  • Itochu #55 overall and #2 among trading companies
  • Panasonic #57 overall and #15 in electronics and fine engineering
  • NYK #58 overall and #1 in logistics
  • Japan Tobacco 60th overall, 3rd amongst food companies
  • Brother Industries #71 overall and #16 in electronics and fine engineering
  • Sumitomo Corporation – #73 overall and #3 amongst trading companies
  • NTT Data #75 overall and #4 in telecommunications
  • Olympus #84 overall and #17 in electronics and fine engineering
  • Dentsu #95 overall and #2 out of service sector companies
  • Sumitomo Heavy Industries #138 overall and #11 amongst machinery companies
  • Calsonic Kansei #138 overall and #18 in automotive
  • Fast Retailing (Uniqlo) #531 overall and #19 out of 20 amongst retailers

 

 

 

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Japanese automotive companies represent 1/3 of top 30 Japanese employers in the UK

Fujitsu continues to be the largest Japanese employer in the UK despite recent restructuring.  We’ve added Sumitomo Rubber to the list, following its recent acquisition of UK tyre wholesaler and retailer Micheldever.  Along with Kwik Fit, another UK tyre dealer and car servicing company is owned by Itochu at #3, this means that over a third of the companies in the list are automotive or have a substantial automotive component to their business.

We’ve also revised upwards our estimate of the total number of Mitsubishi Corporation employees, having confirmed from various sources that its main subsidiary in the UK, Princes, the foods company, has around 3000 of its 8000 employees in its UK operations.

The top 30 now cover around 80,000 of the 140,000 employees that Japanese companies in the UK employ.  Individual profiles of each company, including trends in employment, regional headquarters, European organisation and CSR and diversity analyses are available – please contact pernilledotrudlinatrudlinconsultingdotcom

Rank Company UK employees 2016
1 Fujitsu 9,905
2 Nissan 7,657
3 Itochu 6,697
4 Honda 4,565
5 Ricoh 3,702
6 Mitsubishi Corp 3,482
7 Hitachi 3,317
8 Toyota 3,233
9 Sony 2,937
10 Canon 2,744
11 Dentsu 2,571
12 Nomura 2,468
13 NSG 2,167
14 Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Goup 2,100
15 Denso 1,925
16 NYK Group 1,919
17 Mitsui Sumitomo & Aioi Nissay Dowa 1,867
18 Yazaki 1,846
19 Calsonic Kansei 1,729
20 SoftBank 1,700
21 Sumitomo Rubber 1,574
22 JT Group 1,473
23 Sumitomo Corporation 1,366
24 Fujifilm Holdings 1,292
25 Brother Industries 1,174
26 Olympus 1,157
27 Fast Retailing 1,100
28 Unipres 1,095
29 Konica Minolta 1,055
30 NSK 866
TOTAL 80,683

For more content like this, subscribe to the free Rudlin Consulting Newsletter. 最新の在欧日系企業の状況については無料の月刊Rudlin Consulting ニューズレターにご登録ください。

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Top 3 of Japan’s “Great Place to Work” companies are not Japanese

I’ve commented before that it’s easier for Western companies to win awards that are judged on Western standards, and also that Western companies are more inclined to apply for the awards in the first place, but for what it’s worth, Google Japan has come top again on “Great Place to Work” Institute of Japan’s annual survey for 2015 along with Microsoft Japan at number 2 and American Express in third position.

Japanese companies in the top 10 are less well known outside Japan – Plan.Do.See. which is a hotel and restaurant planning and design consultancy (and offers “Party and Mice“), Works Applications (software), Disco (saws, grinders and blades manufacturer), CyberAgent (internet advertising agency).

Better known Japanese multinationals in the top 25 are Brother (12), Ryohin Keikaku (the Muji store chain – 14), Horiba (16), Nomura Research (IT consulting arm of Nomura securities – 20) and Bandai.

The criteria used in the open ended question surveys are whether the employees trust the management of the company they work for, whether they have pride in their work, and whether they feel solidarity with their colleagues.

For more content like this, subscribe to the free Rudlin Consulting Newsletter. 最新の在欧日系企業の状況については無料の月刊Rudlin Consulting ニューズレターにご登録ください。

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Last updated by Pernille Rudlin at 2021-06-11.

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