The loss of the Stonehouse plant will cost 185 jobs, hardly the thousands some companies say are under threat because of the upheaval from leaving the European Union. Nor did the December announcement come with the kind of political noise surrounding Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor Co.’s recent decision to scrap plans to build a model in the U.K.
By ending manufacturing at the site in 2021, though, Swedish owner SKF AB highlighted a dangerous undercurrent in the British economy that exists regardless of what happens with the divorce from the EU: the country’s productivity. And uncertainty about Brexit has made companies cautious about investing in the automation that might help boost it.
The problem has been on the radar of politicians, executives and central bank policy makers for a while, but it’s now becoming more urgent. Businesses are looking to a future outside the common European market as Prime Minister Theresa May tries to get her Brexit deal through Parliament and they face a stark choice: modernize or die.
It’s not that the country isn’t working hard enough, more that it’s not working smart enough. On average, French workers toiled for 10 percent fewer hours in 2017, yet they produced more while they did so.