Build Back Better—The UKFT’s Five Priorities For UK Fashion And Textiles
The impact of Brexit and Covid-19, combined with environmental concerns and changing consumer behaviour, means there has never been a better time for reshoring UK fashion and textile manufacturing at scale.
UKFT’s CEO Adam Mansell sets out the five changes we need to make that a reality.
The demands placed on the apparel sector to transform to a sustainable, environmentally responsible and ethical model have never been stronger.
Circularity, decent pay and working conditions and a transparent use of resources now dominate the agenda of all progressive major retailers and brands in the UK, and around the world.
Consequently, there has never been a better time for a revival of UK manufacturing and for reshoring at scale.
In 2018 the McKinsey report ‘Is Apparel Manufacturing Coming Home?’ showed that the economics for UK manufacturing worked but that we lacked the apparel ecosystem to support volume reshoring. A recent university study estimates that 10-15% of the UK’s apparel needs could be cost-effectively on-shored today.
But to make that a reality, five things need to change.
1 – Retailers will need to pivot their business models to focus on net margin and accept the need for closer co-operation and investment to build a sustainable, long term, UK manufacturing supply chain.
2 – The UK Government needs change the rules on public procurement so that a minimum of 10% of spend has to be with UK manufacturers. Clothing just 10% of the armed forces, the police and rescue services and the NHS is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to provide a much-needed boost for business, employment local GVA and tax revenue, as well as the sustainability and long-term viability of our sector. This isn’t pie in the sky thinking. The UK Government recently told the renewable energy industry that they wouldn’t receive government subsidies unless they committed to sourcing from the UK manufacturers. If they can do it for windfarms, they can do it for fashion and textiles.
3 – As an industry, we need to recognise the breadth of the UK fashion and textile sector and the possibilities of new opportunities. We already have UK made textiles used in the automotive industry and even in Space with the parachute of the recent Mars lander being made in Devon. But there is more to be done in agriculture, where a million miles of fleece fabric is used each year, or the wet wipe industry, which is worth $12 billion a year. We also need to work more closely with our academic institutions to ensure businesses can harness our world-leading R&D, for example by commercialising materials like graphene and spider silk. Or more simply how about more than one UK button or zip manufacturer?
4 – We have to build factories supported by bleeding-edge automation, artificial intelligence planning systems with manufacturing technologies that will deliver a high-degree of flexibility and cost-effectiveness. We need manufacturing parks sitting alongside a new, nationwide, recycling infrastructure.
5 – We need to develop a skills and careers programme to match the needs of the industry in 2030 and beyond. We need to put pride back into careers in making things and we have a great deal to do to promote the sector to attract young people with IT skills or expertise in finance, business, chemistry, physics and biology.
None of these changes are impossible, and none are new. But Brexit and Covid-19 have bought things in to sharp relief. We need to use the impetus of the opening up of the economy and the change in our trading relationships to build back better and to make the changes that we all know need to happen.
