Industry
Folkestone was at one stage a resort town with a developed shipping trade. With the decline of such industries others have filled the gap. The Dormobile works, car conversion manufacturers were based in the town. Church and Dwight, the US company famous for such brands as Arm & Hammer, has its UK headquarters in the town. Silver Spring Mineral Water Company Limited, currently the largest independently-owned soft drinks manufacturer in Britain, is based in Park Farm.
During the 1980s and 1990s the construction of the Channel Tunnel provided employment for many, as well as bringing many to the area, and on completion the running of service still provides work for many.
Folkestone is also the home of several insurance firms, some of which used to be involved in the shipping trade but have since diversified into other fields. Saga has its headquarters in Folkestone.
Folkestone has suffered a decline in industry since the end of the Second World War. As with most British holiday resorts, the rise in popularity of holidays abroad damaged the local tourist industry. In 2004 talks began between the leaders of Folkestone and Boulogne (Folkestone's twin-town), which was also facing similar economic problems.
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Famous quotes containing the word industry:
“You must, to get through life well, practice industry with economy, never create a debt for anything that is not absolutely necessary, and if you make a promise to pay money at a day certain, be sure to comply with it. If you do not, you lay yourself liable to have your feelings injured and your reputation destroyed with the just imputation of violating your word.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“He had much industry at setting out,
Much boisterous courage, before loneliness
Had driven him crazed;
For meditations upon unknown thought
Make human intercourse grow less and less....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“What more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing more … a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from labor the bread it has earned.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)