Automation, rising manpower costs in low-cost countries, quicker lead times and carbon awareness are all conspiring to make manufacturing inside the UK more competitive compared with low-cost countries. This, combined with the arrival of the global trade tensions and now also COVID-19, has focused purchasing and production managers on looking more actively at domestic or local supply options.
In effect, this may be the push the industry needs to embrace dual-resourcing and look at solutions closer to home. This process could be greatly helped by government incentives to identify and encourage investments in areas where the country is weak, with a particular emphasis on productivity.
Renationalisation of supply, renewed localisation of production, and a decoupling of major economies from one another, these are likely to be the lasting effects of COVID-19.
Jeremy Warner
The Telegraph