“Buying British” is a slogan often trotted-out in times of national financial hardship.  The supposition is that if you made the specific effort to follow this advice the country would somehow pull clear of the economic turmoil.

Often, however, it is too simplistic to think that the nation’s fortunes can be secured simply by looking for “Made in Britain” signs on the goods you purchase – if in fact this is an option!  When was the last time you pondered the choice of a British made television?  If you find a product purporting to be British do you know if it truly is a British product or an overseas product that just happens to be assembled here?

One way of spotting if the product is mainly of overseas origin would be to see how it’s price has risen in recent months.  With Sterling faltering against most international currencies, products and services from America or the Euro zone have experienced a dramatic upturn in price.  We have all seen unprecedented rises in price for products in our supermarkets which emanate from mainland Europe.

It is the same with our trade.  Products and machinery made in the UK will have a better chance of holding their prices than items shipped in from the Continent.  We have noticed the few components we import from Europe have rocketed in price recently.  We are thankful however that most of the components in our machinery are not only UK built, but are actually made in our own factory.  A couple of years ago we invested in CNC machinery in order to control the quantity, availability and quality of the parts in our machines.  This has proved to be the right decision.

An added bonus of the decision to bring such production in-house is that we are not as susceptible to the currency fluctuations.  This would impact prices significantly if we were to purchase most of our parts and machines from the Continent.