Retail and food & drink sectors see major investment at UKTI event

The Thai arms of retailers Boots and Tesco join FMCG brand Nestlé and others in announcing significant investments in UK and overseas operations at today’s British Business Embassy retail, food & drink summit in London today.
Thu, 9 Aug 2012
The Thai arms of retailers Boots and Tesco join FMCG brand Nestlé and others in announcing significant investments in UK and overseas operations at today’s British Business Embassy retail, food & drink summit in London today.

The summit is one of 18 events being organised by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) to coincide with the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Nestlé is to invest £500m into UK manufacturing facilities over the next three years. It currently employs 7,000 people across 19 UK and Ireland sites.

Meanwhile, Boots is looking to increase the number of stores in Thailand from 200 to over 300.

Tesco Lotus currently has over 1,000 stores and is opening three new distribution centres, which should see it recruit at least an additional 9,000 staff in Thailand this year.

Razor manufacturer King of Shaves is to enter the Turkish market, while sweet producer William Santus & Co has announced a contract under which it will sell to Japan.

UKTI will present a new retail strategy, ‘Delivering for the Global Consumer’, at the World Retail Congress next month, and British Retail Consortium director general Stephen Robertson says: “This signal that the government wants to support the UK retail industry overseas is welcome and exactly what we’ve been calling for.”

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