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RANGE REVIEW: MADE IN BRITAIN: RANGE RE RANGE EVIEW MADE IN RE EVIEW:


N BRITAIN N BRITAIN


DIY Week speaks to two British manufacturers to find out wha t their big gest challenges are, how


attitudes towards buying British are chang ing and what Brexit means for their business.


BEST OF BR


EST


RITISH H


unexpectedly in February this year which proved a shock to economists who had forecast a 0.2% rise in industrial and manufacturing output in February


recording a seventh consecutive month of growth in November. r,, the output figure fell year


U However r,, y..


The fall has partly been attributed to the bad weather at the start of the r,, which the Of fice for National Statistics (ONS) believes could have depressed the figur es.


year


British manufactur ers certainly have a lot on their plate – whether its unpredictable weather, politr, , political uncertainty or Br exit playing havoc with curr ency rates – so why do these companies r emain committed to making their pr oducts in the UK?


Keeping it flexible


Matt Jones of Ecofective, which is part of the Italian Sipcam Gr oup and manufactures gar den pr oducts at a facility in Royston, says: “As a new entrant into a very seasonal market, the ability to change production requirements quickly in response to customer demand is key , maintaining high standar ds in customer service and helping us realise opportunities with new customers that we might otherwise miss if we had long lead times.”


s key y,, maintaining high standa 18 DIY WEEK 11 MAY 2018


K manufacturing ended last year on a high, with output expanding at its since


fastest rate early 2008, after


He continues: “Our pr oducts ar e relatively low value, so transport costs ar e an important factor making UK pr oduction appealing – along with packaging and formulation inputs sourced locally wherever possible. We also find that quality and


We control e also find r equirements Wo new


product development pr ocesses r un much better when working closely with UK domestic suppliers.” Peter Wootton


Tr from Riverco


Trading, which produces wooden furnitur e handmade in the Staffordshire Moorlands, as well as his newly-launched Frogsuit furniture care products


range of


manufactur ed in Thetford, explains that he has tried importing goods from abr oad but shifted pr oduction back to the UK because he couldn’t get the quality he requir ed and wanted to claw back some control. “I did start by buying in fr om China but I realised that, after 12-18 months and some nightmarish ends to deals, it was not going to work. I designed the furnitur e to be made in China but we had issues with holes put in the wr ong places and customers complaining that things they’d r eceived didn’t fit together y. . It put us on our knees and een silly Wey.. We


properly. It put us on ou


we realised we had been silly have the skills, the resour ces and the people who want to work over here, plus I have gr eater contr ol over my own market and supply chain. Of course, you can still get let down in other ways but you have more contr ol over it.”


www.diyweek.net


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