HUGHES SHOWERS OVERSEAS AT APPG IN SINGAPORE

Stockport based Hughes Safety Showers Sales Director, Paul Darlington, recently returned from a trip to Singapore where he attended a trade mission organised by the All Party Political Group for Trade and Investment (APPG).

In recent months, and as an active member, Tony Hughes has attended many of the APPG meetings to raise the profile of Hughes and bring to the attention of the British Government our dissatisfaction around the treatment we have received over the last couple of years from the British banking system.   

Pleased to accept the offer to deputise on Tony’s behalf, Paul travelled with a mix of parliamentarians, financiers, and various business people from engineering, education and infrastructure. 

The mission was led by Margot James MP for Stourbridge, who is also chair of the APPG. The programme of events covered much of the rich diversity that Singapore has to offer and took in many informative presentations and visits to companies with a British theme.

         There are strong British links with Singapore and
         one of the many highlights of the trip for Paul, was
         a visit to the Rolls Royce Aerospace factory where
         they assemble the Trent 900 and 1000 turbofan
         engines which are used in the Airbus A380 and
         Boeing Dreamliner respectively.

He also had the opportunity to attend an evening reception hosted by Antony Phillipson, British High Commissioner for Singapore held at Eden Hall. This gave a great networking opportunity and he was fortunate to meet with representatives from the UKTI, Chamber of Commerce and The Energy Industry Council to name but a few.   Eden Hall is the High Commissioners residence when in office, it was built in 1904 but has only been used by The Foreign and Commonwealth Office since 1957 when it was bought by the British Government for a nominal some from a gentleman called Vivian Bath, with the stipulation that a plaque be installed at the bottom of the flagpole, which reads “May the Union Jack fly here forever”.

The timing of the visit also coincided with our on-going evaluation into the setting up of a Hughes Sales office in Singapore to sell and distribute showers to the ASEAN countries. We have a number of options on the table and Paul had a very encouraging meeting with a new potential partner. The ASEAN countries and East Asia are regions in the midst of tremendous change and are modernising at breath-taking pace. For example, Indonesia is the largest economy in South East Asia and has some very large underdeveloped oil reserves, and where there are oil producers there is huge potential for Hughes Safety Showers.