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Monday 23 January 2012

UK Manufacture

Visited Interiors show at NEC yesterday. It was a good show with loads of stands with loads of exhibitors. It made me wonder, though,  exactly how much of the stuff there was manufactured in the UK. There were one or two stands flying the flag, obviously displaying UK manufactured items. There were some old UK "household names" there but I wonder how much of what they were showing originated in the UK.

I am strangely drawn to the Union Flag when I see it displayed on a product. I like to see who else is with us trying to stem the flow of imports and actually making stuff which people can buy, which generates wealth which helps the economy. I was drawn to one flag but was quite shocked to see that rather than saying, "Made in the UK", it boasted that the range was "Stocked in the UK". I know that we all have to use whatever tools we can to get our products noticed but, really, what does the consumer gain from knowing that the product is stocked in the UK? Maybe if I put a "Led Zeppelin" sticker on our products because once in the 1980's Robert Plant came to our factory to pick up some hardware? I am sure that all it would do would be to alert Zep's lawyers that someone was using their trade mark without permission. So who looks after the trademark of UK plc? Shouldn't someone be policing the use of the Union Flag? I guess all that would do would be to add a few more civils servants to the numbers we already have to support.

So, we are in it by ourselves, guys. All us UK manufacturers should stick together.There was a report on the radio this morning that Asda are to create 5000 new jobs. That's good news but Asda can't keep growing unless:

a) they take business off Tesco and the other supermarkets, (which we may be seeing with Tesco's latest figures).

b) we create new jobs in manufacturing and sell more stuff from the UK to people overseas so that we create more wealth which enables us to buy more from Asda.

Let's get this message across. Buy a product manufactured in the UK, wherever possible. Medium and long term we will all be better off if we do.