INTRODUCTION

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC IS a major Japanese company founded in 1921 with approximately 121,000 employees worldwide. It specializes in the manufacture of electrical equipment including energy and electric systems, electronic devices, industrial automation systems, home appliances, information and communication systems. The company began the manufacture of television sets at Haddington in Scotland in 1979. It later established facilities for the manufacture of videotape recorders (VTR) at Livingston in 1983 and for the assembly of air conditioners also at Livingston in 1993.

In the 1970s the demand for Japanese consumer electrical goods in Britain and Europe was expanding rapidly. Local manufacturers complained of the damage caused to their companies by Japanese exports of products, which were generally of higher quality and lower price. There were fears that there would be growing unemployment in the industries affected and this led to demands for protection through quota restrictions and other non-tariff barriers. The quotas allowed for imports were inadequate to meet local demand and restrictions were placed on the sale of products, which were not labelled as manufactured in a country within the European Economic Community.

Japanese companies affected by these restrictions were thus forced to set up manufacturing facilities in an EEC country if they were to maintain and expand their share of the European market. Sony, Hitachi, Toshiba and Matsushita as well as Mitsubishi Electric were all equally affected and chose manufacturing sites in Britain for reasons which I explain below.

TELEVISION FACTORY AT HADDINGTON

It was sheer chance that Mitsubishi Electric decided to start manufacture of television sets in Scotland rather than somewhere else in the EEC. A Norwegian electronics company called Tandberg had established a small manufacturing facility in Haddington a small town on the outskirts of Edinburgh where they had been producing successfully for a couple of years a high-end TV in relatively small quantities. Unfortunately, their head office in Norway had run into difficulties and decided to close the factory. This caused much concern to the British authorities and the Scottish Development Agency in view of the prevailing difficult economic conditions and unemployment and they sought an alternative manufacturer to take over the facility. They were delighted when Mitsubishi Electric agreed to start manufacturing television sets in the Haddington facility.

Only one condition was imposed on Mitsubishi, namely the continued employment of the existing employees. This Mitsubishi willingly accepted.