the last word
The last
WORD
Made in Britain…or a ploughman’s lunch!
By Tony Carter, managing director of Carters Collectable Teapots
Interest in the provenance of products is growing. Consumers are looking to make educated decisions about the products that they purchase and therefore relying on retailers to make products’ journeys to the shop shelves clear. Unfortunately it is easy to deceive consumers into thinking they are buying into British businesses; here Tony Carter from Carters Collectable Teapots discusses the issues surrounding ‘British’ products.
Tony Carter is managing
director of Carters Collectable Teapots.
‘I would like Cheddar cheese, crusty bread and pickle please’, was the frequent lunchtime request made by many for a meal that was romantically called a ploughman’s lunch. The phrase ‘ploughman’s lunch’ was invented by an advertising executive in the early 1960s, and the illusion has been maintained that when you purchase one you are somehow buying into the romance of a bygone age filtered with sunrays and warm, jolly harvest times. There is much said about
products that are ‘Made in Britain’ and this fairly new phrase ‘Designed in Britain’. But little is understood about what they exactly mean, and whether there is even a difference. Too many unsuspecting consumers purchase goods with the label ‘Designed in Britain’ and feel a warm glow of satisfaction believing that the fact that the product has been designed in this country must surely mean that’s it’s been done ‘properly’ and is well made, regardless of where it has been made. Packaging is another area that has been using the national flag, often with a nostalgic
26 Department Store Buyer
twist, to portray that what is contained within the box is somehow better because it has a British product inside. Of course it might have, but the reality is that the product, which certainly might have been designed here, has probably been made in the East and cleverly packaged to make it look as if it has been made in the UK. Maybe in this global economy of ‘design here and make over there’ is forever the way forward. The vast majority of goods purchased here have been made ‘out of the country’ and really why should anyone care? After all you can always satisfy yourself in the knowledge that you are helping the economy of some other country that probably really needs the money. And so, like the ploughman’s lunch, the purchaser is buying into an illusion. To those of us who both design and manufacture in this country we are of course in the minority. Manufacturing here has been declining for years, for a number of reasons, and yet I know as a small- scale manufacturer the demand is in fact high and the buying public are prepared to pay the going rate for a product that can honestly put ‘Made In England’ or ‘Made in Britain’ on its products. I completely appreciate that the vast majority of products that are made in other countries are now made at such a high level of quality that it would be churlish to consider otherwise. But there remains room for English manufacturers in the marketplace that we are all working in. I know that my own pottery, which specialises in unusual teapots, is constantly being sought
by customers because as well as being interesting in their design, the teapots are made in England, which the consumer sees when they turn them over. I know myself and am always being told by my stockists that the ‘Made in England’ phrase completes the purchase. Are customers buying into the illusion of ‘Made In England’ where the products have actually been made elsewhere? Yes of course they are. They are buying into the idea that products made in this country are somehow ‘better’ made, more fairly produced, and have not had to cover thousands of miles to get here. For some, such phrases a ‘carbon footprint’ might also roll around the consideration before deciding to purchase. Interestingly my pottery does not only sell its products all over the UK, but 50 per cent of our teapots are exported, and it is the export buyers who are more aware of the importance of this ‘Englishness’ than possibly some UK buyers. At the recent Spring Fair in Birmingham I did business with many overseas buyers including those from Russia, the USA, Kuwait and Italy to name but a few. They all said how important it was for them and their consumers to have ‘Made in England’ on the teapots, as for them it represented the idea of ‘Englishness’ and the fact that it was properly made in England. For many ‘Designed in England’
is sufficient to qualify the purchase, because somehow that makes it all alright, but does it? ■
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