CONCENTRATION PLAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 92, 19 April 1941, Page 9

CONCENTRATION PLAN

BRITISH INDUSTRY

STEADY PROGRESS MADE

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 17. ■ Steady progress is being made in carrying out the Government scheme for the concentration of industry, whereby some firms will work to full capacity, with Government assistance, in - the matter of labour and raw materials, and others will be closed down for the duration of the war, receiving compensation from those still operating, and with a Government guarantee of sympathetic help to reiopen directly hostilities are concluded.

Approved firms will be called "nucleus" firms. In the cotton-spin-ning industry 111 mills have already been accepted by the Government in this manner, while 61 mills are to be closed down and the position of the remaining 229 is under consideration.

The hosiery industry, which consists in the main of undertakings of moderate size, is facing a somewhat different problem, and one firm, for example, is closing three out of 12 factories, while four small firms are to carry on production in one factory.

An interesting experiment is being tried by firms manufacturing similar goods which are working as independent units under the roofs of one factory. Six companies making imitation leather goods in Northampton are forming a holding company which will continue their interests.

It has been decided to exclude the furniture-making and clothing industries from the scheme, because their units are so small and varied that the disturbance caused by such a reorganisation would not be likely to be .-justified.