Leyland warning

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32838, 11 February 1972, Page 7

Leyland warning

If British Leyland’s profit did not rise substantially above the 1,5 per cent recorded last year, the corporation would not be able to replace its factories and car-models quickly enough, and would "gradually wither away,” the corporation’s employees have been told in a 32-page document on the corporation’s financial affairs.

The corporation’s 1.5 per cent profit was "not enough even for the sweet-shop around the comer,” the document said.

The corporation’s industrial relations head (Mr P. Lowry) is quoted in the

document as saying that if the corporation’s after-tax profit was divided among its employees, each would receive a total of $l9O, “. . . and the corporation would be bankrupt.”

It is not the first time British Leyland’s employees have been told—directly and indirectly—that industrial troubles and strikes could soon mean the end of the corporation. British Leyland, like other British car makers, has been plagued by strikes for the last two years. The result has been lost production, lost sales, rises in costs, and drastic falls in profits.