interesting observation, is that based on anything inparticular (again no personal interest, other than we will be stocking half a dozen of their lines this year)
Nothing other than gut feeling, Stu.
Look at Panda and Men Shun; both had product here a while before they decided to come across and 'go it alone'. Then, after realising that this particular end of the rainbow is the one without a pot of gold, they simply up and off. The UK market remains attractive to Chinese manufacturers, but they fail to see the costs involved in running a venture here and, by comparison, the relatively limited market. In the long term without the volumes associated with supermarkets I can't see how a manufacturer of Brothers calibre can shift enough product to make a UK operation viable. As good as their product is, I suspect they would need to make significant strategic changes in order to capture that type of business.
