GENERAL ELECTRIC PROSPECTS
It is good to find instances of big British industrial under- takings combining an increasing contribution to the nation's defence needs with steady progress in the export field. Lord Hirst made it clear at the meeting of the General Electric Company that this giant of the electrical equipment industry is in this fortunate position. Home business, supplemented by Government orders—though these still played a com- paratively minor part in total turnover—held up well, and the net profit, at £1,776,000, just topped the peak figure attained in 1937. He explained that a potent factor in such satisfactory results was the achievement of a record volume of export business, " not due to any particular country or to any large contract, but spread over nearly all our overseas markets and nearly all our departments." The markets themselves were mainly within the Empire, which absorbed more than 8o per cent. of the company's total exports, but in other parts of the world the sales organisa- tion was hammering away, and occasionally, as in Turkey, had found a satisfactory opening where the foreign country had received some financial help from the British Government.
There is no escaping the conclusion, after reading Lord Hirst's survey, that, provided there is no international flare- up, he is optimistic about this year's prospects. At present the equipment industry, despite keen competition both in the domestic and export field, is working on a reasonable margin of profit. Given the maintenance of costs around the current level, it therefore stands to benefit from any fresh growth of sales. Lord Hirst sees, with ample justifica- tion, the basis of increasing demand in rising employment, increased public purchasing power and the expanding con- tribution of the Government to the productive programme. * * * *
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