British business "better than ever," manufacturers say

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Jun 1, 2016

The Meet the Manufacturers tradeshow, which is organised by Make it British, the campaign for the return of UK manufacturing, took place in London on May 25-26.

In the run-up to the event, Meet the Manufacturer conducted a poll, which showed that 60% of manufacturers say “business is better than five years ago” and 65% say “stay in the EU”. The event itself featured over 100 exhibitors from across the textile and homeware sectors, and participants included the British Fashion Council, Harrods, Marks & Spencer, the National Gallery and ASOS. 

Kate Hills, founder and CEO of ‘Make it British’, the campaign for the return of UK manufacturing, said: “We’ve been delighted by the overwhelming support for this year’s event, borne out by the fact that we had more people attend this time on the first day than attended overall last year.  Our workshops, which were new for this year, were phenomenally successful with around 900 people attending them over the two days."

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"There’s an air of confidence in the industry at the moment and Make it British is definitely back in fashion.”

New for this year were the Innovation Accelerator and Designer’s Den competitions, where businesses that had made it through to the finals could pitch their ideas to a panel of experts live at the conference. Sockmine won the overall prize and Dot One won Designer's Den.

BFC CEO Caroline Rush, who co-hosted a debate and networking party at MtM, said: “The atmosphere when you arrive at Meet the Manufacturer is incredible. For the exhibitors here, it’s a great opportunity to hear that our designers want to make in the UK and to talk about the opportunities and how to overcome some of the barriers.  The British designers that we promote through London Fashion Week and London Collections Men really wouldn’t be able to start if it wasn’t for the manufacturing on their doorstep.”