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The Best of British?

Do you look to buy British? If so, what is it about the concept of ‘Made in Britain’ that draws you in? Perhaps you think of the Aston Martin engineer lovingly crafting a beautiful V8 and signing it as an artist would, or maybe the sight of a Union Flag on a product seems to offer you the chance to support the national economy. But now the ‘workshop of the world’ has moved eastward, should companies shout about their British manufacturing facilities, and do purchasers care anyway?

The words ‘British manufacturing’ and ‘decline’ seem now to be almost inextricably linked and come laden with images of closed shipyards and car plants. It would be understandable if people assumed every manufacturing facility in this country has ground to halt and begun to gather dust. But as much as the headlines tell you otherwise, products are still being manufactured (not just assembled) within these shores.

You might expect the remaining British manufacturers, plucky and resilient against the temptation to move their plants abroad, to be vigorously waving the flag, proclaiming their patriotism and commitment to the UK workforce, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. If ‘British manufacturing’ has connotations of failure, ‘Made in Britain’ still radiates high-quality and reliability, and for good reason, as this country is still a hotbed for the world's most talented designers and engineers, so it seems strange that not everyone is capitalising on their situation.

However, a few months ago I spoke to the director of an electrical products company who manufacture in the UK and I asked him why they were not more vocal about their products being British-made. He replied that they were very proud about it, but equally they could not be confident that their ability to manufacture in the UK would remain long-term, and therefore they did not want to promote this fact and then be forced to sheepishly drop it if production moved overseas. This strikes me as a shame, though his predicament is understandable.

Obviously there is little point in raising the profile of British manufacturing and British-made products if customers are unmoved when they see ‘Made in Britain’ on the box. Would an electrician choose a British-made circuit breaker over one made abroad if he or she thought they were of similar quality (and confident they were not counterfeit: see link below)? And how relevant is the country of origin to a procurement manager when buying in stock for a major contractor? One would assume price and quality is everything in both situations.

Well, there’s only one way to find out, so I phoned a few EPA readers to gauge the level of feeling on the issue. Paul House, an electrician from Cheltenham said: “Whenever I can buy British I do. People do assume buying British is more expensive, but that’s less of an issue when buying electrical equipment where quality and safety is more important.”

John Ritson, a site manager from Brighton said: “I do like to see Made in Britain on products and it would be good to see British manufacturing get back on its feet. It’s also positive for the environment if we use products made in the UK as it reduces air miles.”

A number of people I spoke to did also mention that although they would like to see a resurgence of manufacturing in this country, the quality of foreign-made products was as good, if not better, than those made here and there was a unanimous belief that buying British was more expensive.

The subject is always going to be tinged with emotion due to the huge historical importance of manufacturing in Britain and the impact it has had globally. But now in the days of globalisation and the improvement in the quality of products made in the Far East, coupled with their lower cost, it can make loyalty to British products a difficult choice.

So where do you stand on the issue? Email richard.scott@imlgroup.co.uk to let me know and I’ll publish a selection of the comments on the site.

Enjoy the newsletter,

Richard Scott
Editor


Your Comments:

Richard,

I really wish that ALL products had a country of origin on them - not necessarily embossed on, a sticky label would do. I tend to buy British, but now that so many well-known British companies source from abroad (particularly cheaper producers such as China) it is no longer possible to gauge the country of origin by the name of the manufacturer. Also, if I buy a well known brand of shirt, for example, for £50 I would hope that the price reflects a quality product. If it was made for 10p in a sweat shop in some far-flung country I would not be able to tell (until I washed it perhaps!) and I would have been duped by a profiteer.

A label showing the country of origin would go some way towards protecting us from unscrupulous merchants.

Mick Yarker. Nu-way (British heating equipment manufacturer)



Dear Richard,

It's the company’s policy to buy locally (British companies) wherever possible for raw materials. But if we buy in finished goods, unless there is a label on the packet or the unit itself, we have no way of knowing whether we are buying British or not, which makes it difficult. If you ask the company you are buying from, they are quite often vague or do not know, which is not helpful so you are not sure whether you are supporting British manufacturing or not.

Where possible we manufacture in the UK a lot of products, that we sell worldwide. We pride ourselves on the quality of our products, but the foreign exchange rates for our overseas customers can sometimes deter them from buying from us, discounts sometimes help, but not all companies are particularly interested in “buying British” they are just interested in a good quality product at a fair and reasonable price.

No easy way to overcome this, we are governed by the World exchange. Nice to “buy British” but not always very competitive, even the good quality does not always compensate for this.

Best Regards

Lorna Dyter
Quality Manager / Technical Sales
SKC Ltd




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