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INSIGHT MANUFACTURING
By Ged Henderson
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
in association with
MAKING THINGS WORK
OPEN FOR ENTRIES
NOW
ENTER NOW 5 December 2025
Deadline:
redroseawards.co.uk @redroseawards #RRA26
For generations Lancashire’s economy has been built on the shop floors of its mighty manufacturers.
Today, making things remains a true strength of the county but its manufacturers are feeling rising pressure on multiple fronts.
Shrinking talent pools, rising labour and material costs and cheaper overseas competition are among the challenges that have to be faced.
And keeping skills alive is becoming harder in some traditional areas of manufacturing, such as textiles.
Jenny Ainsworth is senior manager at Rucomfy in Great Harwood. Founded in 1982, the family run company is the number one manufacturer of bean bags in the UK.
The multiple award-winning business is proud of its ‘Made in Britain’ membership. Jenny says it wears it as “a badge of honour” and describes Rucomfy as a “traditional manufacturer.”
From design to dispatch, the company does everything in-house. With a workforce of more than 40, the business is on target to increase turnover to more than £5m this year.
Jenny talks of a skills shortage when it comes to sewing machinists. She says: “We have got a team of really good machinists here, but it is a dying skill.
“Ideas around careers have changed over the years. In the past generations it was manual
labour, the present generation is more into tech and computer skills.”
The business carries out its own in-house training and has started working with East Lancashire Learning Group, formerly known as Nelson and Colne College Group, to help more people in the area learn ‘hands-on’ skills.
Jenny says: “Finding places for students who want to learn manufacturing skills is becoming harder for them. We’re offering work placements and work experience so students can get hands-on experience.”
Rucomfy sells its products on e-commerce sites such as Amazon and eBay. Its products are sold by big name retailers including John Lewis, Very and Argos and growth is very much on the agenda, including increasing sales in Europe.
In this year’s Hyndburn Business Awards Rucomfy went home with the Made in Hyndburn and the prestigious Beacon Award for putting the borough “on the global map.”
Jenny says: “We are not just based here; we’re part of the community and take pride in partnering with local businesses and giving
We need versatile workers with wide skills
and a good grounding in manufacturing and engineering. These are fulfilling roles. We also work to develop our people
Getting the message out to young people that traditional manufacturing can provide a good career is also important, she adds.
The business is feeling cost pressures. Jenny says: “We pride ourselves on working with UK- based companies, they make up our supply chain.
“Being based in the UK we have higher operation and labour costs than our competition in China and the Far East, as well as the price of energy and raw materials. Our margins are squeezed.”
something back. The company has gone through so much, Brexit and Covid, and here we are still going strong.”
In its factory in Chorley, Tapeswitch designs and manufactures switches and pressure-sensitive sensor products for safety, detection and control applications. The £2.5m turnover business is a member of the Manufacturers’ Alliance.
Managing director Karen Keighley says: “Our product is generally built into someone else’s
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