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Aga Rangemaster have been manufacturing their distinctive range of cookers in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, since the 1930’s but the brand itself has a history stretching to the early 19th century. However, they are currently in talks with US firm Middleby Corporation, a large US based kitchen equipment business, for a takeover which has the potential to put many British jobs in jeopardy.

The Aga has become a status symbol of the British middle classes, adorning kitchens across the UK from a trendy London flats to palatial country piles. While the share price has rocketed at the news of potential US investment, as we have seen before, what is often good short-term news for shareholders generally equates to bad long-term news for the hundreds of factory workers and the British manufacturing landscape generally. Are we right to be worried? Three years after steelmaker Corus was taken over by Indian behemoth Tata Steel, its complex at Redcar, on Teesside, was closed and during the takeover of Cadburys Kraft promised that the factory at Keynsham, near Bristol would be safe only to change their mind once the deal was done. This is just two examples of what so often happens when the decision making leaves Britain.

A staggering 90% of directors of purchased British firms are out of office within a year, basically leaving the new owners a free hand and, arguably, little sympathy for the local workers. Both the chairman and the chief executive of Cadbury were out within a few days of Kraft’s takeover and production moved out of the UK inside of 3 years.

In any case,  even if the manufacturing remains in the UK and the jobs are secured the profits of these once very British institutions, following the takeover, inevitably leave our shores.

Selling the family silver

According to Dealogic, a financial-information firm, foreigners have spent $1 trillion on acquiring 5,400 British companies in the past decade. We suspect that many Britons now aren’t so sure that they have got a good deal. Many hold a basic anxiety is that foreign ownership will mean factory closures and job losses. As head offices close, power shifts abroad and Britain risks becoming a “branch factory” economy.

In short, like most, we are fed up with our family silver being sold from underneath us!

The obvious long-term solution to this is to offer some regulation of certain key British businesses. Indeed some American states have such protection from foreign takeover of businesses that are key to their economy. However, Aga Rangemaster are now teetering on the brink of US takeover what can done at this now?

Take Action!!!

Our reader, Mike, (who alerted us this this issue) has already written to his MP but, based on our dealings with Government officials, we are sceptical that they will listen to a lone voice. We would welcome any suggestions for action that might be taken highlight this cause.

The Dunlop Motorsport Factory in it’s hayday

125 years of British manufacturing is to be demolished later this summer as the bull dozers move in on the Dunlop motorsport factory in Birmingham.

The factory supplied race teams with hundreds of specifications of car and motorcycle tyres, serviced by 20 trucks which travelled the world’s circuits throughout the sporting calendar.

The Castle Bromwich plant had been sold to Indian owned Jaguar Land Rover in 2013 which lead to its closure soon after, costing 300 local jobs. Production was ultimately transferred to Germany, France and elsewhere in Europe.

The closure, and destruction, of the factory brings to an end successful motorsport partnerships with the city, including supplying the famous Bentley Boys to five wins in the Le Mans 24-Hour race between 1924 and 1930 and winning eight championships in Formula One in the 1960s.

Dunlop also played a crucial role in the glamorous Land Speed Record battles between the war years when Sir Henry Segrave’s Golden Arrow vied with Sir Malcolm Campbell’s Bluebird and the American challengers.

Britain’s £9 billion motor sport industry will now have to depend on imported tyres from across the globe, no longer of the high quality produced by skilled Birmingham workers.

Here is a copy of our latest press release all about launching our own made in Britain logo. 

The Bradshaw family, aka The British Family, are well known consumer champions for British manufacturing and they continue in their efforts to get us all buying British by launching a free logo that business can use to clearly identify their products as ‘made in Britain’. In the 2 months since launching the logo it has been downloaded by over 500 businesses, through word-of-mouth alone, and it is fair to say the Bradshaw’s are overwhelmed by the response.

James (36) and Emily (31) and their 4 year old son Lucan, from Westerham in Kent, have built up quite a following in the last 3 years through their much publicised campaigns aimed at saving UK industry. These have included buying nothing but British made for 12 months, throwing an annual celebration of British manufacturing attracting over 12,000 people and enjoying a totally handmade Christmas, all of which have been religiously documented on their blog – www.britishfamily.co.uk.

However, their latest project is calling for manufacturers to show solidarity by displaying the free logo and adding it to their products, packaging and in store displays. “It is crazy that so few British manufacturers still show clearly where their products are made, and with people seeking out British products more than ever, they are likely losing out.” says James. He continues “That is why we created the logo and the response has gone viral.”

It is clear that since this family began their adventures just over 3 years ago the issue of British made and locally sourced goods has come to prominence. When asked if they feel somewhat responsible for this rise in awareness Emily suggests “I hope we have helped and we were certainly part of a movement, or revolution, if you will, but to say that we started it might be pushing it a little.”

One of those passionate British Manufacturers supporting the Bradshaw family’s campaign is Scottish entrepreneur Eddie Middleton of Chillchaser® Infrared Outdoor Heaters, who last year brought back his manufacturing from China to the UK by opening a new factory near Edinburgh. Several years ago Eddie infamously featured on the BBC Two program Dragons Den turning down the shows largest ever offer from Peter Jones and James Khan of £255,000. Eddie says “manufacturers need to recognise the value of the Made-in-Britain logo and get behind the Bradshaw’s campaign! Chillchaser has used the Made in Britain logo on our products and it definitely helps us win more business in the UK and in the 30 Countries we export to.”

But the logo is not just for large exporters, the Bradshaw’s state that many of those that use the logo are smaller businesses. Steve Britton-Williams is one such user. He is a product designer turned inventor and entrepreneur whose rapidly growing range of housewares can be found in high street retailers such as Lakeland.  “The logo not only gives me a selling point to differentiate my products from lower quality imports at the cheaper end of the market, but also to compete with more established and expensive brands at the upper end by challenging historic assumptions that buying British made goods always means having to pay a premium. I believe in the UK we’ve always had the world’s best design, engineering and manufacturing talent on our door-step to achieve this goal, so let’s use it.”

The Bradshaw’s have not set any particular ambitions for how many businesses they anticipate will be using the logo 12 months from now, but if the last few months are anything to go by it should be ubiquitous in stores soon.

If you would like to download the free made in Britain logo it is currently available through the Bradshaw’s blog at www.britishfamily.co.uk/made-britain-logo-free-download

As followers of our blog will know, we were asked to be one of the judges for the first UK manufacturing awards organised by RH Nuttall, themselves a proud British manufacturer. Our nominations were: Ebac Ltd, Mr Singhs and Sockmine. Ultimately, despite our calls for a recount and accusations of a rigged ballot, non of our nominations won in the end. So who has been deemed the UK’s best manufacturer?

In the end Essex based turntable manufacturer Rega took home the gong and, beyond our mock protestations, are very worth winners.

Rega, was started in the early 1970’s by two friends and music enthusiasts who made their first turntables in their bedrooms. 40 years later they have grown into market-leaders in turntable innovation and are still spinning stronger than ever. Theirs is an industry that many might have predicted would enter free-fall with the advert of CD’s and the final death blow might once again have been foretold shortly before the advert of music downloads. However, they have ridden the waves of what is ‘cool’ by steadfastly sticking to what they do best – building innovative music gear in the UK. They are now reaping the rewards of the recent revival of vinyl. You could say they have truly turned-the-table [groan] on the neigh-sayers.

If you are now tempted, like we are, to bring your old 12″‘s down from the loft, dust them off and party like it is 1979 then you will not go far wrong by investing in a Rega. Like vinyl, they seem to be here to stay.

Well done Rega! A well deserved win for one of British manufacturings stalwarts.

I am worried that this might be the second politically themed blog in as many weeks. Guido Fawkes we are not, but here goes…

So, The Guardian has spent 10 years and close to half a million of tax payers money disclosing a series of letters between Prince Charles and Tony Blair sent between 2004-2005 and the only real expose is how poor his handwriting is. Indeed, I would have hoped, given the best education that money can buy, that his longhand might have been a little neater but it is now clear that all the effort to publish the letters was not worth all the fuss. I suspect this was not the scoop the journalists had been rubbing their hands over all these years.

What actually come across in the letters is how ‘in-touch’ he is and how much he genuinely seems to care about certain issues, particularly around the state of British farming. He was certainly before his time in warning of Britain’s lack of self-sufficiency and his concern about the power of the supermarkets- matters that have, in recent years, come to prominence through various campaigns by the NFU. I could not help but feel, when reading the letters, that if any of the actual politicians cared as much there might be a little bit more optimism around at the moment. In short Charley came across as one of the good guys. Royalist or not, I think that cannot be denied.

Of course there is mild controversy for his avocation of the badger cull but who could not have predicted his view on that issue?!. He is himself a farmer and all farmers advocate culling.

Perhaps the massive spend in legal fees and the time taken to get these letters in the public domain was worth it after all. British farming can now be sure they have a tireless campaigner and lobbyist on their side who does not crave publicity for his efforts. We should all take some comfort in that.

– James

If you miss our usual eclectic mix of British made product reviews, recipe ideas using British ingredients and general adventures across the UK – We promise that normal service will now be resumed.

The doors of politics have recently been blown wide open and, according to the Daily Mail, 40% of voters are still undecided. Old, or deep seated ties, that may have crossed generations have, by many, been scrutinised and set aside like no other election before it. There is a general feeling that the publics appetite for the party politics of old has dwindled leading to, what would have previously been considered more marginal parties, hold far more power. All of this has left us, a distinctly normal British family, in a real dilemma of who should receive our vote.

We have almost staunchly shied away from discussing politics in our blog. The reason for this is that we did not want for our message, of supporting British manufacturing and farming, to become tied to one party. This would simply polarise our audience and dilute our general message of celebration. However, we have had a number of opportunities to meet, or have other contact with, politicians over recent years. I would say that these interactions have always left us disappointed and with little faith in intentions of those particular individuals.

Our blog is about British manufacturing. So what do the main parties say about what they will do to increase British production and promote it abroad? Well, as far as we can see – very little. We looked. Although we will admit to not having the will to read each party manifesto cover to cover, as you might imagine. If we are wrong on this please do comment below.

So where does this leave us on 7th May? We will be frank with you – we don’t now. We are left weighing up the pros and cons of each party:

The Conservatives
Historically, we have been a conservative household. What we can say for sure is that this has changed. For us, their willingness to sell off Britain’s assets to private companies is a real turn off. Recently they agreed the privatisation of Royal Mail (losing a shedload of our money in doing so) and are continuously chipping away at the NHS. The two remaining institutions that we should hold in absolute reverence in this country are the NHS and the BBC but we cannot help but feel that these would be in danger in Conservative hands.

Labour 
Milliband is an option. Although it has to be said that we still smart from the deceit of the Tony Blair’s  administration. Their policies regarding rising taxation for the countries richest seem to be entirely logical though. Labour do mention creating a ‘world leading’ farming and fisheries program which seems a little woolly but they are saying sort of the right things as far as supporting our farming industry is concerned.

Liberal Democrats
The Lib Dem’s appeared decidedly gutless in the recent coalition and are sure to get a hammering in the polls this year. We do like the concept of raising extra funds by having increased taxation on banking though. Generally, they have some sensible policies but we cannot help be feel that they are a party in decline.

Ukip
UKIP are an odd one. Nigel Farrage is, in many ways, the most appealing character of all of the main parties. Looking through all of the guff about them, their policies actually seem quite ‘sensible’. Although there stance immigration has been accused of smacking of racism, they simply seem to mirror those employed (and lauded) in Australia. Their policy on significantly cutting foreign aid is perhaps a little concerning. It seems logical to continue to help the worlds poorest as much as you can afford to. However, central to their manifesto is pushing for an EU referendum. We are a little concerned by the impact that this might have on the foreign manufacturers that currently have sites in the UK, especially automotive. However, it is never a bad thing to let the people decide… after all that is democracy right?

The Green Party
We actually like a number of The Greens key priorities; ending privatisation of the NHS, taking back public ownership of the railways and protecting the green belt are all positions that are attractive to us. However, their open-door policies in immigration do concern us. It perhaps swings too far the other way. Also, following the recent TV debates we are not sure that Natalie Bennett would be a particularly convincing PM.

Following the all party TV debates we were, like many, most impressed with Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP. This was a real surprise as we held a deep dislike of their former leader Alex Salmond. We could not help be feel that she was genuine and something really different in todays political arena. If it were not for her parties commitment to tearing Great Britain apart and the fact that, being in England, we could not vote for even if we wanted to, she might have been a real option.

So there we have it – a run down of our thoughts leading up to the 7th of May. Still undecided.

Of course we will vote for someone. It is clearly important that we all exercise this right. Will we tell you afterwards who we voted for?… nope! Despite this rather unusual (but frankly important) post from us, our message is still not about politics but about enjoying what we make in the UK.

We mentioned in an earlier post that we had been asked to judge the UK manufacturing awards, set up by gasket maker RH Nuttall. Well, after much consideration our nominations are in.

It was harder than we imagined but in the end we decided on Ebac Ltd, Mr Singh’s Sauce and Sockmine (Roy Lowe & Sons Ltd).

Ebac Ltd are a bit of an obvious choice. They are committed to UK manufacturing and continue to push the boundaries of what is made here. They have recently launched the only washing machine to be made in the UK and revived the Norfrost brand of freezers. In our view they have likely got this competition all sewn up.

Mr Singh’s is a family fun business and manufacture hot sauces (which are fantastic BTW) and since winning investment have gone from strength to strength. They have begun exporting abroad and have an enviable commitment to quality. We keep saying this, but they are also the nicest people you will meet. If for no other reason than being ‘good people’ they deserve recognition.

Sockmine are a brand owned by Roy Lowe & Sons UK manufacturer of socks. They are produce socks in varying styles but their sports socks are the best we have found. They are great example of a solid business producing a simple product but doing it very well.

So there you have it – our 2 cents of who we admire in UK manufacturing. It is interesting to note that some of the companies we considered but did not choose have also been nominated by the other judges….. namely, Netherton Foundry and Numatic.

The next step is choosing the winner.