- Neeraj Kanwar is the boss of Apollo Tyres
- The company has seven factories around the world, but none in Britain
- Employment expert labels Kanwar’s comments ‘gross national stereotyping’
Stereotyping: Neeraj Kanwar is director of the Indian company Apollo Tyres
The boss of a multinational tire manufacturer said he would not build a factory in Britain because British workers ‘barely work – they go to the pub’.
London-based Neeraj Kanwar is director of Indian firm Apollo Tyres, which has seven factories around the world – including a European base in Hungary – but none in Britain.
Kanwar, 52, who also owns an Italian restaurant in London called Scalini, accused the welfare state of making it less important for people to hold down jobs. But an employment expert branded Kanwar’s comments as “gross national stereotyping.”
Apollo, which had a turnover of £2.3 billion in the last financial year to the end of March 2023, employs more than 18,000 staff worldwide and is a long-term sponsor of Manchester United.
In Britain, the company has a ‘lean’ team of around 30 people dealing with the corporate brand, finance and some HR activities. It also has one of two innovation centers in Britain – the other in Hyderabad in India – and links with the University of Glasgow, where it works in areas such as artificial intelligence to boost productivity in its factories.
But Kanwar rejected the idea of manufacturing in Britain, given the scarcity of workers.
“There is no incentive to go to Britain,” he said.
“Hungary gave us incentives, labor costs are much more competitive and production costs become much easier. And you know what the working population is like in Britain. They hardly work, they go to the pub.’
Kanwar said the comment was a joke, but added: “I think because of government policy people can sit at home and get a pension and they don’t have to work, and that’s a big policy issue.”
Apollo was founded in the 1970s by Kanwar’s grandfather Raunaq Singh. Kanwar’s London base is also a ‘semi-headquarters’ for Apollo’s global operations outside India. The comments come as London faces a struggle to re-establish itself as a hub for international business leaders, many of whom have chosen to base themselves in Britain or list their businesses here even as their main operations lie abroad.
Kanwar’s views were criticized by labor market economist John Philpott. He said: ‘This seems to me to be a gross national stereotyping that would be condemned if a British employer made it about workers abroad.
‘Workers in all developed countries tend to become choosier when it comes to choosing jobs as income levels and education levels improve, which is one reason why migrant labor is used to fill lower-paid positions.
‘But there is little evidence that healthy people with few other options can turn down jobs because of the availability of benefits. The fact that so many young, well-educated Britons are finding themselves in less skilled and precarious work in the so-called gig economy shows that an easy life with benefits in the pub is not a widespread preference.’