Tony Ball
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ony Ball of Tony Ball Assoes had a dual role to play at conference. He was the afterler speaker at the RHA gala ler (a leading Fleet Street /spaper once referred to Mr as one of the best after-dinspeakers in the world) and as also the guest speaker at
conference on Thursday -ning. His paper was entitled
British Motor Industry — nging Gear in a Changing 'Id.
'ith a wide variety of busk : and communication insts, Mr Ball is well qualified ilk about the motor industry. launched the Mini in 1959,
responsible for BL's "Buy sh" campaign, and masterJed the launch of the Austin .o.
my Ball's entertaining paper t with the often sad history L, gave an insight into some e internal happenings at the company during Michael Edwardes's reign as chairman, but also provided delegates with some good news.
"We can start to breathe again because from here on, in Britain's motor industry, the dole queues will begin to get shorter, the job opportunities will be getting better, the wage packets fatter and the share of our home market by British-built cars and commercial vehicles will be getting larger. The marketing miracle is starting to happen."
And Mr Ball had some hardhitting words to say to those who pose the question: "Is it in the public interest that BL should survive?" Individually, the companies within BL are following their own separate recovery path and collectively they represent 500,000 jobs, he said.
"But that's not all. BL does business with over 7,000 other firms in Britain and it spends f2,000M here in the UK buying British goods and services.
"BL is Britain's biggest exporter of manufactured goods and last year BL and its employees actually paid to the Government nearly £320m in taxes, insurance contributions and interest on state loans. And of course, like everybody else, the BL companies have to pay interest at full commercial rates on the loans they receive for working capital."
Britain's motor industry is proving that it can once again seek its way with renewed confidence and renewed strength, reckons Tony Ball.
"The great fight back is really under way."