A report by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) recently revealed that the UK is now the cheapest place to manufacture in western Europe.
The BCG found that not only was the U.K. the cheapest location in western Europe but that eastern European costs were on a par with the U.S. Brazil is now one of the highest-cost nations, while Mexico has lower costs than China.
A spokesman for the BCG states “Many companies are making manufacturing investment decisions on the basis of a decades-old worldwide view that is sorely out of date,” he said. “They still see North America and western Europe as high cost and Latin America, eastern Europe, and most of Asia – especially China – as low cost.” This is certainly not the case any more.
This news is obviously a great headline for British manufacturing but producing your goods in the UK should not just be a cost decision. Increased quality control and a better supply chain should also form the basis for any manufacturing businesses reason for producing in Britain. There is perhaps one more reason too – supporting your local economy and giving your community jobs. For those that have continued to manufacture in the UK over the past 30 years this has been a real consideration, and those businesses should be saluted.
The recent resurgence of the re-shoring of manufacturing to the UK is fantastic, likely driven by the lowering costs this report mentions. While we are keen to welcome these businesses back to Britain it is important that they make a renewed commitment to Britain in the long-term and not just while the going is good.
Hopefully this time they will be back for good (hence the tenuous link to the featured image)
– James
I read a government report on the automotive industry with particular reference to the supply chain a few years ago. They predicted exactly the above happening, although over a longer timescale than has actually happened. I think this is one reason government policy has shifted towards manfucturing. So things are looking good for the forseable future I would say. As you say the long term aim has to be to make this permenant. When the cycle of offshoring comes around next time somehow businesses need to be supported and perhaps reminded that these are relatively short term trends. Once again government and consumers are the key. We need to support British Made through these periods of seemingly cheaper/more profits to, by knowing deep down it is a short term illusion.