A leading analyst has tipped Pilkington as the best buy for this year.

After four years of painful reorganisation and cost cutting, the company is now the world's lowest cost producer of glass. Profits are rising and it is calculated that global glass demand outstrips the growth in gross domestic product. Well done Pilkington! And it's still a British company, based in St Helens, Lancashire.

It was a wet Sunday and I looked at The Times list of the top 200 companies. With a few notable exceptions, British manufacturers are being replaced by financial services, retailers, property companies and the service industries.

Evidence of the decline in British manufacturing is everywhere. In Brighton until the Eighties, there were still factories on our industrial estates and some substantial companies - Creeds, Gross Cash Registers, Alan West and others - were major employers. Now we have Asda and furniture retailers.

Does the decline in manufacturing matter? Some economists think not.

I am told many of our brightest graduates, even some with science and engineering degrees, opt to make their fame and fortune in the City. I am not sure this is good for the country or the graduates.

Pilkington's report is full of interest. Chief executive Paolo Scaroni has a clear vision. He said: "We aim to be the most competitive, most profitable and fastest-growing global glass company in the world. We control more than a fifth of the world's float glass production capacity and we are a leader in float glass technology and engineering. One in every four cars in the world use Pilkington glass and our building products sales are doing well."

This is clear enough but can the company live up to these high expectations? As yet it has never managed Premiership status.

Despite past problems, Pilkington has always been innovative and has an exciting new product - active self-cleaning glass. This could be a significant technical triumph and an important marketing development. Other new products are coming on line.

Pilkington has manufacturing operations in 25 countries and sales outlets in 130.

Many years ago, I worked for ICI and spent a week on the kilns at Brunner Mond making soda ash for Pilkington St Helens.

Brunner Mond tells me it still manufactures a million tons a year. I hope the company succeeds and intend to place a small order with my kindly stockbroker.

Yield is five per cent and there's hope for the future.