In the wake of the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union, there is a lot of potential for resurgence in UK manufacturing.

The new Prime Minister Theresa May will have to negotiate the falling pound value, new trade deals as well as higher import costs. Currently, Britain sells around 50 percent of its exports to the European Union. There are a lot of uncertainties regarding the potential impact on the purchases of garments made in Britain if they cannot maintain a tariff-free trade.

For a lot of the British retailers and brands who currently outsource their production to countries like Turkey, Italy, China and India, the pound devaluation means that they will end up spending more on orders due to the fact that they pay in dollars or euros. The extra costs will be passed on to the consumers, leading to inflation. Moreover, the cost of raw materials will also be affected as most of them are imported from overseas.

If it becomes cheaper to source the raw materials locally due to a weakening pound, import tariffs or new duties, it could eventually lead to more investment in local manufacturing. If the government decides to boost local manufacturing and put some loans or funding in place to help manufacturers start up, it could turn things around. Currently, it is quite expensive to set up a factory with all the legislation and equipment. Brexit has provided the right impetus to start pushing money behind this cause. In the long term, the currency rates will come down and people will start manufacturing closer to home.

Made in UK

One of the main issues that will end up affecting the UK clothing and textile industry is the potential difficulty in finding skilled labor if restrictions are placed on the movement of people between countries in Eastern Europe and the UK. It is anyone’s guess as to how things will pan out for this mushrooming part of the UK manufacturing sector. One thing is for certain, UK manufacturers are going to see a lot of uncertainty and instability over the next few months.

However, there are a lot of manufacturers who think that there is going to be a lot more buying from the UK, which will definitely benefit UK manufacturing; social media could be a big contributor. It is not feasible to showcase a product in March and tell your customers that they cannot buy it till September. Customers have access to social media and they want whatever they are looking at right now. You cannot have a global supply chain and have your products sitting on some boat for weeks. So, you need the product to come from closer to home as six weeks on a boat from Japan isn’t an option. People want what they want right now. So, there is a high likelihood of it coming home.

More in store down the road

While some of the retailers might turn to British manufacturers to supplement their collections, the bare fact remains that UK manufacturers only have a limited capacity. A lot more needs to happen before UK manufacturing gets back to its old glory. All the offshore knowledge needs to be brought back home and manufacturers need to find a way of setting up a cost-effective and efficient options before they get moving again.