COVER STORY People are buying British again
Roy Phillips, managing director of Intelliconnect (Europe), remarks on the rapid growth of UK manufacturers buying British again
A
strange and rather wonderful thing is happening in the UK electronic component manufacturing sector:
People are buying British again! What is causing this odd phenomenon? Patriotism? Marketing? Government policy? Green considerations? Transport costs? Communication issues? Long delivery lead times? None of the above. It’s good old fashioned PRICE! Yes, who’d have thought it; UK buyers are purchasing UK products based on price. Electro-mechanical component manufacturers like Intelliconnect are reporting increases in sales values of up to 50 per cent since the middle of 2016 in the UK and significant uplifts in export revenues. The reason for this, of course, is primarily the weak pound which is causing effective increases in some imported products of up to
30 per cent and concurrently a decrease of up to 30 per cent in the cost of UK goods to foreign buyers. Although the pound has rallied a little in recent past, most experts are predicting a strengthening of the dollar over the next year and into 2018 based on the new US administration’s intention to pursue tighter monetary and looser fiscal
controls. (The last time a similar stance was taken as by the Reagan government in the eighties, it led to a 30 per cent increase in the value of the dollar). It is not, however, the only
reason that UK manufacturers are becoming more competitive. Productivity is improving rapidly, volumes are increasing, UK manufacturers are much more willing to trim their margins in order to win business and total acquisition cost of purchasing locally is being driven down by supply chain excellence initiatives such as SC21 in the defence and aerospace markets and the Supply Chain Excellence Awards across all sectors.
The downside, and of course,
there is always a downside, is that whilst UK buyers are now much more willing to buy British, the problem will often be finding a British manufacturer of their particular need! In doing some research for this article, I Googled ‘UK Electronic Component Manufacturers’. I found, to my horror, in the generic, ‘non- paid’ items, six distributors, two listings websites, one publication and one machining company. Not one single UK electronic component manufacturer! It is not difficult to see the issues buyers and engineers face when
sourcing general electronic and electro-mechanical components from UK manufacturers. Fortunately, no such issues exist in the RF connector, adapter, cable assembly area where Intelliconnect is there to provide a one stop shop for all interconnect needs and provides an ever more competitive platform for UK manufactured and low cost components.
www.intelliconnect.co.uk
8 December 2016/January 2017
Components in Electronics
www.cieonline.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
