Events - 2022

We had a very rewarding second online meeting with Lord Grimstone of Boscobel Kt, Minister for Investment at the Department for International Trade and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy chaired by Alex Smith, Managing Director of Volkswagen Group and a member of our board and look forward to a third meeting with Lord Grimstone later this year.  The Minister asked us to bring him up to date with our challenges post Brexit and with the pandemic and we had a very lively discussion with him with some 25 members and guests from the German automotive, engineering, pharmaceutical, transport, legal and financial services sectors, together with a representative from the German Embassy, joining in.  We were very grateful to the Minister, who is responsible for all foreign investment in the UK, for answering all our questions and appreciate that he wants to continue discussions with us.

We had a very interesting First GIUK Online `Teams` Meeting for members of 2022 with Rawdon Glover, Managing Director of Jaguar Land Rover UK, chaired by Member of our Board, Richard Bushnell, Managing Director of OSRAM Limited with some 20 members and guests from the German automotive, engineering, pharmaceutical, transport and financial services sectors, together with a representative from the German Embassy, joining in.  Rawdon Glover gave us a very comprehensive overview of Jaguar Land Rover, with slides showing their current and future vehicles and emphasising in particular the electrification of cars and the lack of charging points that still exists.  This was followed by a very lively question and answer session with valuable contributions, amongst them from Dr Markus Grüneisl, Chief Executive Officer of BMW UK Manufacturing Ltd in Oxford (Mini).

We had a very good Second GIUK Online `Teams` Meeting for members of 2022 on Monday, 7th March from 14.00-15.00hrs with some 15 members taking part.  Amongst those present were the chief executives and senior colleagues of ANT Telecommunications, Balluff, BMW Manufacturing (MINI), Boehringer Ingelheim, Brose, Fuchs Lubricants, HARTING, Lufthansa, OSRAM, some members of our Advisory Council and the Head of the Economic Department of the German Embassy.  Firstly, Dr Atenstaedt, who chaired the meeting, mentioned our forthcoming events, our working meeting at Miele GB on 16th March, our 47th Anniversary Dinner Discussion in London on 19th May and a conference at Wilton Park from 4-6th July.  He then talked about lobbying Government and our present contacts with Steve Barclay MP, Alex Burghart MP, Maggie Throup MP, and James Cleverly MP.  Following this we discussed many of our current challenges like impact on salaries and wages due to the high inflation rate, impact on supply chains due to the Ukraine crisis, high turnover of key skilled employees and increased costs, paperwork and delays with our imports in to the UK post-Brexit.  This was a really lively discussion amongst colleagues.  We will aim to do more online meetings without guest speakers to allow for more discussion amongst colleagues.

We had a very good Third GIUK Online `Teams` Meeting for members of 2022 on Monday, 25th April from 14.00-14.45hrs with some 17 members taking part.  Amongst those present were the chief executives and senior colleagues of ACI Group, ANT Telecommunications, BMW Manufacturing (MINI), Boehringer Ingelheim, Brose, Fuchs Lubricants, HARTING, LTi Metalltech, OSRAM, TopRegal, Voith Turbo and also some members of our Advisory Council and a Counsellor from the German Embassy.  Firstly, Klaus Allion, MD of ANT Telecommunications, gave a short presentation on how we can work more closely together in future with sub-groups.  Afterwards we discussed many of our challenges like impact on salaries and wages due to the high inflation rate, high cost of living, the massive increase in energy costs, impact on supply chains, high turnover of key skilled employees and increased costs, paperwork and delays with our imports into the UK post-Brexit.  This was a really lively discussion amongst colleagues.  Following this, Dr Atenstaedt, who chaired the meeting, talked about lobbying Government and mentioned his contacts with the Rt Hon James Cleverly MP, new Minister for Europe, Lee Rowley MP, Minister for Industry, Alex Burghart MP, Minister for Skills and Maggie Throup MP, Minister for Vaccines and Public Health and last but not least Lord Grimstone, Minister for Investment, who may join us at our dinner discussion in London on 19 May to celebrate 47 years of GIUK.

We had a very rewarding Third VIP Online Meeting in 2022 yesterday with Mr Lee Rowley MP, Minister for Industry at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, chaired by our Executive President, Dr Bernd Atenstaedt.  Amongst those present were the chief executives, members of the board and heads of departments from ACI Group, ANT Telecommunications, Bahlsen, Bayer, BMW UK Manufacturing (MINI) and Swindon Pressings, Boehringer Ingelheim, Brose, BSH Home Appliances, Draeger Safety UK, Fuchs Lubricants UK, HARTING, Helaba Bank, Kärcher (UK), Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Lufthansa German Airlines, Porsche Cars Great Britain, Rösler UK, Sikla, Voith Turbo and Webasto Group, also some members of our Advisory Council and the Deputy Head of the Economic Department of the German Embassy.

The Minister talked about current and future legislation for the benefit of business.  That was followed by `questions and answers` and we discussed our challenges post-Brexit and the pandemic, also automation, codetermination, industrial strategy and skills amongst other topics.  The Minister was very enthusiastic throughout the meeting, kindly answered all our questions and offered to continue the discussion with us sometime soon.

We had a very rewarding Fourth GIUK Online Meeting for members of 2022 on Friday, 17th June 2022, 14:00-15.00 hrs with some 15 members and guests taking part.  Amongst those present were the chief executives and members of the board of ACI Group, ANT Telecommunications, BMW Manufacturing (MINI), Boehringer Ingelheim, Efaflex, Helaba Bank, LBBW Bank, OSRAM, Rösler, Sikla, a member of the GIUK Advisory Council and the Minister and Head of the Economic and Financial Affairs Department of the German Embassy.  This was the first online meeting for members which our new Chief Executive, Phil McClennon, chaired. 

To begin, Uday Bose (Managing Director of Boehringer Ingelheim and Member of the GIUK Board) shared an overview of the UK Government's plan to develop the UK Life Sciences Industry, together with insights into the key constraints which need to be overcome to realise that aim.  Phil McClennon then shared the context for the up-coming launch of the member discussion subgroups, together with the plans for the Automation/ Digitisation and Supply Chain, Import/Export groups which would be the first to begin.  The group then reflected on the recent positive discussion with the Minister for Industry, Lee Rowley MP, regarding the UK Government's plans to support manufacturing growth and our Executive President, Dr Bernd Atenstaedt, outlined the status of discussions with other Government Ministers and also talked about the proposed panel discussion on `Skills in the UK and Germany` in cooperation with MakeUK and the British Chamber of Commerce in Germany.

Our next online meeting will be announced soon and we will be using our new platform as introduced by Phil McClennon - www.whereby.com/gi-uk

We had an excellent Fourth VIP Online `Teams` Meeting of 2022 with our Patron, the new German Ambassador, HE Miguel Berger, with some 25 members and guests joining in. Our Executive President, Dr Bernd Atenstaedt, gave an overview of German business in the UK and our continued lobbying of Government on behalf of German business.  The German Ambassador then talked about further strengthening the good relations between the UK and Germany, more important than ever since the UK left the EU, but not Europe and a good relationship between the two vital countries in Europe is now more important than ever.  He also stressed that business and investment between the two countries needs to be further increased and he also emphasised that he will support our lobbying of Government.  We then had an overview of the automotive sector by Dr Markus Grüneisl, Chief Executive Officer, BMW UK Manufacturing Ltd (MINI) and Swindon Pressings Ltd, an overview of the healthcare sector by Uday Bose, Managing Director/Head HumanPharma UK & Ireland, Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd and Member of the GIUK Board, an overview of the transport sector by Henri Lange, Senior Director Sales Northern Europe, Lufthansa German Airlines and Member of the GIUK Board and an overview of the financial services sector by Heiner Boehmer, General Manager London Branch, Helaba Bank and Member of the GIUK Board.  After that, we had a very good discussion, with contributions from James Stephens, Vice President Corporate Affairs UK & Ireland, DHL International (UK) Ltd and Richard Bushnell, Managing Director, OSRAM Ltd.  Phil McClennon, our Chairman and Chief Executive, closed a very rewarding online meeting and we are now looking forward to a roundtable discussion with the Ambassador after the summer at his residence to take our discussion further.

On Thursday, 11 August, the new GIUK `Digitisation & Automation` Sub-group met for the first time, chaired by our Chief Executive, Phil McClennon, to discuss related topics of interest with members across the diverse sectors of German business in the UK.  The full scope of both topics was reviewed within each business present, and consensus formed around the key topics for ongoing information sharing and discussion.

Each of the businesses already had mature ERP systems in place and things like remote or hybrid workflows and communications were well established as normal business.

This high level of existing competence highlighted that advanced topics such as secure data handling and analytics was their core focus for further developments.  Future meetings will touch on specific elements of this topic with “deep dive” examples from member organisations.

There was also much experience in the group with digital communications for marketing and employee engagement.  The potential relevance of both to the entire GIUK membership community was noted, so further insights into this topic will be shared with the wider GIUK community.

Extending from these themes into the world of physical automation technology, the members highlighted an interest in learning more about the benefits of predictive analytics in relation to their physical operational processes.  Given this interest it was agreed that a specialist will be invited to a future meeting to give some deeper technical insights into the maturity and applications of this technology.

One additional topic raised in the discussions was the opportunity created by deeper integration of a business’ digital and physical automation data, so this theme will also be expanded in a future discussion.

Overall the Digital and Automation Sub-group launch meeting fully met its objectives in scoping out the key topics for future “deep dives” within the group.