The foreign face of British Industry

So who are these major European Corporations with fingers in various European pies and how much influence might they have on UK jobs.

Below is a list of some of them. The names may not seem that familiar, but you have to take account of the corporate world’s love of playing ‘fishy’ and running the gauntlet of the monopolies commission.

• Unilever brands include: Knorr, Flora, Dove, Walls, Marmite, Surf, Hellmans and 373 others
• Saint Gobain owns Pilkington Glass
• BMW own Mini and Rolls Royce
• BAE Systems was once GEC, Hotpoint and Marconi and now includes GEC-Alsthom
• Deutsche Bahn own Arriva and operate our buses.

One name that surprisingly didn’t show up in the ranking probably because of its structure, but is worth a mention is Associated British Foods. It’s a diverse group of companies registered in London and operating out of 50 countries and includes such familiar names as Primark, Twinings Ovaltine, Jordans, Allied Bakeries and British Sugar.