Sandwich stories: Integration!

I discovered a woman at the school who sells sardine sandwiches. Sardine sandwiches are a thousand times more delicious than bean sandwiches and also easier to eat, because oil and spaghetti don't drip out as I attempt to eat one. Instead, a sardine sandwich is like a tuna sandwich, mixed with mayo and onion. Sometimes the sandwich even comes topped with a few leaves of lettuce

The only unfortunate aspect to sardine sandwiches is that the lady who sells them nearly always chooses plain brown paper to wrap the sandwich in. But one day I got a mini-refresher course in economics, courtesy of the torn page of an unidentified textbook that held my lunch.

…when one company…gain control of it. A merger is when companies agree…together under one board of management. Where a firm has acquired a number of other companies which retain their original names, it is known as a holding company. Imperial Group are an example of a holding company.


There are two types of integration
Horizontal Firms at the same stage of production join together, e.g. two manufacturing firms join together or two service industries amalgamate
Vertical Firms at different stages of production join together, e.g. a manufacturer buys up a supplier of raw materials, or a manufacturer buys up a chain of shops. Vertical integration can be divided into

Exercise

Which type of integration?

Say whether each of the following mergers/take-overs is an examp… horizontal or vertical integration. If you decide it is vertical, say wh…is backwards or forwards.

1 The merger of National Provincial bank and Westminster Bank to…Nat West Bank.
2 Brook Bond Tea buying up tea plantations in Sri Lanka
3 Scottish and Newcastle Brewery buying up public houses
4 MFI, cash-and-carry discount furniture retailers, buying up Hygena, manufacturers of kitchen units
5 British Airways’ take-over of British Caledonian Airways.


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