How feasible is it to reshore our industries?
The Office for National Statistics has reported that the UK has suffered “significant challenges when acquiring and maintaining their stock”.
Well, no surprise there as businesses have been well aware that a combination of Covid, Brexit, higher energy prices, events like the blockage of the Suez Canal and, of course, now Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine has disrupted the global supply chain.
But this week the paper CityAM is asking whether now is the time to bring manufacturing industries back into the UK, aka “reshore” them to ensure not only supplies of essential but also growth.
While not underestimating the challenge, the paper points out that the UK “is still the ninth largest manufacturing country in the world, producing £183bn of products and employing 2.5m people”.
Reshoring, it argues, will have benefits, including reducing products’ carbon footprint, reducing lead times and delivery costs.
It quotes the organisation Made UK which says that already “40 per cent of reshoring is returning from China, over 30 per cent from Eastern Europe and almost 20 per cent is returning from India.”
All this is, of course, easy to say but much harder to turn into a productive and practical reality, not least how to finance it.
But if you think your business could benefit from a restructure or pivot to bringing it back on shore and eventually growth why not call us for a preliminary chat?
You can message us via LinkedIn or email or call for an appointment.