Simeon Goldstein: Welcome to Britain

Now, I’m not sure that it’s the same in the other terminals – and yes, the airport is owned by a consortium that is headed by Spanish firm Ferrovial – but I think it’s a bit of a shame that the first thing that people see on arrival at the UK’s biggest airport is a picture of a Mediterranean beach.

Apart from confusing the tourists – especially with the covering of snow outside – it seems a great place to highlight the country and the absence of a UK advert seems to me like we are selling ourselves short.

As the economy slowly picks up – any odds on a double-dip recession? – surely we need to be doing all we can to promote the country as both a tourist destination and, more importantly, as a place to do business.

With a talented workforce and well-run operations, UK packaging sits with the best in the world. The fact that the pound is weak at the moment provides a great opportunity to go out and get business abroad as firms can be competitive on price. This could only be beneficial and, I suspect, would help maintain manufacturing here.

Maybe it’s a bit of a utopian view and, yes, more is needed to support UK manufacturing – not least some government support, but I guess we need to wait for an election to see some serious action.

But, the opportunities are out there and firms that are able to go out and grab the Andalusian bull by the horns will surely benefit. To do that, we need to do more to sell UK packaging to overseas firms.

Not that I’m suggesting we need to mandate that the posters in the arrivals lounge at Heathrow have pictures of the white cliffs of Dover or a red post box.

Then again, how about one saying “Andover loves you”? I’m sure it does.

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