Britain fights back in the global manufacturing battle

Britain is recovering its position as a global manufacturing hub and is now the cheapest country in Western Europe to produce goods. This conclusion comes from one of the world’s leading consultancy groups - Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Part of this recovery is down to spiralling wage costs across Europe. Over the past decade, wage costs have risen by 16% in Britain, compared to 52% in France and 62% in Italy over the same time period. Stable wages in Britain combined with improved productivity over the past decade, have also helped Britain to be competitive with Eastern Europeans countries such as Poland.

The BCG ranks the UK as a “regional rising star”, citing that it has emerged as “the lowest-cost manufacturing economy of Western Europe”.  As well as low labour costs, BCG highlights the UK’s low corporate tax rates and flexible labour market as competitive advantages. This is slowly helping to show British businesses that they need not outsource their manufacturing to Eastern Europe, South America and Asia, places which have traditionally offered lower manufacturing costs.

As reported earlier this month in the Buckinghamshire Business First newsletter, one local company greatly benefited after bringing the bulk of its manufacturing back to Britain. The owner of Mediplus, Emma Gray, now has more control over the manufacturing process, resulting in greater quality control. Read the story here.

So, the time is right to think of bringing your manufacturing back to the UK or, to put it another way, it is time to re-shore your manufacturing!

Buckinghamshire Business First is hosting an event on September 18th to show off the benefits of re-shoring to British businesses. The event will feature speakers from the Manufacturing Advisory Service, UK Trade & Investment and the Technology Strategy Board.

Find out more and book your place, here.

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