Brother
Electronics giant Brother has had its UK headquarters in Manchester for 40 years. Ichiro Sasaki, who has just finished a four year tenure as the company's UK managing director, says its Northwest base continues to play a key role in Brother's success.
Brother UK is an exemplar of long term inward investment success in England's Northwest. Forty years after it first opened for business in Audenshaw in East Manchester, the electronic technology company is still thriving.
It is part of the giant Brother Group, based in Nagoya, Japan. Founded in 1934, the Group has operations in 28 countries, sells its products in over 100 countries and employs around 22,000 people.
The UK operation began in 1959 in London, but moved to Manchester in 1968. The company employs around 250 people. Around forty of these work in the customer contact centre, handling calls from all over the UK and Ireland. Remarkably, Brother is believed to be the only Japanese company with a call centre in the UK. Next door is the Brother Group's European headquarters, Brother International Europe (BIE), which employs another 150 people.
"It's an excellent location for us, especially in terms of recruitment," says Sasaki. "There's a strong pool of enthusiastic local labour and there is Manchester University on our doorstep, the largest single-site university in the UK and with an international reputation."
The Japanese ethos, he says, is to achieve a successful business through a happy, well balanced and effective workforce. He is a great believer in continuous employee training and development and the company has built up strong links with Manchester University. For example, the marketing department takes a number of summer placements students each year.
"It is good experience for them, to work in a large multi-national like Brother, but it is good for us, too, as it gives us better access to the widest possible talent pool," he explains.
When Sasaki first visited the Northwest in the 1990s, he wasn't sure what to expect. He was delighted to find clean, modern urban areas, surrounded by breath-taking countryside, including two of the country's most popular national parks, the Lake District and the Peak District.
"I realised when I arrived that my prejudices about the industrial landscape were totally wrong. Just five minutes from my home in Wilmslow I can be in the heart of beautiful countryside. And I've been to the Peaks and the Lakes many times and love to go walking there," he says.
Sasaki is a former chairman of the Northwest Japanese Companies Association (NWJCA). The NWJCA is a business and social group for Japanese companies in the region. It also manages and raises funds for Manchester Japanese School, set up in 1983 to provide native schooling for the children of Japanese people working in the Northwest.
In the decades since Brother UK opened in Audenshaw, Sasaki admits that there have been discussions periodically about whether to move operations to elsewhere in the UK. But he says that each time the benefits of the Northwest have far outweighed those of other candidate locations.
"There are many Japanese companies in London, but it is too crowded and their costs are much higher. It makes much more business sense for us to continue to base ourselves here. It is hugely more cost-effective, in terms of both recruitment and property, and with the good motorway links, not least the M60 five minutes from our door, we can get anywhere in the country quickly and easily."
And it is not just the motorway network that is a boon to Brother. The proximity of Manchester International Airport - around 20 minutes from Audenshaw - is invaluable considering the regular coming and going of company personnel between the UK, Japan, Europe and elsewhere.
"It is so easy to get to and from the airport. And near to it there's a good choice of housing to rent or to buy, ideal for the large number of Japanese people we have working or visiting Brother UK and BIE. You can't find accommodation like that so close to Heathrow. It would cost double and be twice as far away," he says.
