Meet the Manufacturer 2015: Returning UK Manufacturing to its former Glory

As more and more UK retailers begin to realise the benefits of shifting their manufacturing closer to home, the demand for high quality fashion and textile producers continues to grow. Employment in the UK manufacturing sector has risen for 20 consecutive months and for the first time in five years, producers are investing in state of the art machinery, including digital printers and new looms. In order to facilitate the move back to UK manufacturing, Kate Hills, founder of Make it British launched the country's first sourcing trade show and conference for fashion and textile producers Meet the Manufacturer.

In the run up to the second annual event, FashionUnited spoke to Hills on how the trade show came to be, what new initiatives visitors can expect and her love for UK manufacturing.

Where did the idea for Meet the Manufacturer come from?

“The idea came about through running the ‘Make it British’ website. I was getting thousands of inquiries from all sorts of companies who were looking to start manufacturing in the UK again - everyone from small startups to big high street retailers - and realised the demand for manufacturing in the UK was growing again. At the same time, I already knew so many of the fashion and textile manufacturers in the UK and realised they were having difficulty finding new customers, maybe as good at marketing themselves as International manufacturers were. So I thought by creating one show that brought everyone together it would solve everyone’s problems.”

Why do you think it is important to include a conference within the trade show?

“I thought it was important to include the talks and the conference within the trade show because I saw there was a misunderstanding between UK manufacturers and retailers, I think mostly because of the way manufacturers work here, which is on a CMT basis. (Cut, Make and Trim), that could be something retailers are not used to if they are looking for a full service. So I wanted to make sure that was covered in the conference. I also thought the panel discussions with people who had worked with UK manufacturers would help inspire the audience to go out and do the same themselves.”

“We have a different set of speakers this year, including Patrick Grant, creative director for Norton & Sons and E. Tautz and Caroline Rush CBE, chief executive of the British Fashion Council, as we wanted to tackle another set of challenges and finding new ways to continue inspiring people.”

How difficult was it to organise the event the first time round? Was it smoother sailing the second time round?

“Everyone was really open to the idea. It is amazing how everyone is really passionate about the idea getting textiles from the UK. There are a lot of characters and passion within the industry here, so as far as finding speakers for the conference and exhibitors that was not really ever a challenge. It was great to get everyone in the same room with such positive feeling about UK manufacturing so we are hoping to repeat that this year.”

“But I think the whole show has been more difficult to arrange this time round! You think it would be easier the second time round because you have done it before, but we have grown more than twice in size this year. Although the conference is shorter and will be running in the morning because a lot of people said they could only attend the show for one day and wanted to hear the talks as well as the trade show. We tripled the size of the trade fair floor space this year because we doubled the amount of exhibitors and wanted to give them much more space. We had a queue around the block last year so we want to make sure that it is a more comfortable experience for everyone this year.”

The inaugural Meet the Manufacturer ended up having twice as many visitors than anticipated, how did you manage it all? In what way have you grown for the second event?

“We managed it with difficulty last year. I have to say we had a few problems with registration last year and were not expecting the turnout we got, so I think we are more on top of that this year. We have a wider variety of exhibitors this time round, because last year we had limited floor space and we were pretty full long before the event was even close to happening, so this year we made sure we've got more of everything.”

“Last year people were asking for more ​leather​ manufacturers, so this year we have a lot more people from the leather industry. We have people who provide trims, labels and other services within the industry so it really covers everything to help bring the UK textile manufacturing chain back together again. Machinery suppliers, trim suppliers, and so on because part of the problem everyone was saying was the industry is so fragmented and not well connected in the UK. So we are trying to bring all that back together again, hence our aim to bring together all the different types of businesses within one trade show area which I think is something quite new in Europe. The trade shows are usually all for textiles, or leather and not necessarily everything under one roof.”

Clearly you are keen supporter of the revival of UK manufacturing, but why is local production so important for you?

“When I first started out in my career twenty odd years ago, everyone I knew and worked with manufactured in the UK (I had my own business), I worked for designers and high street retailers that made everything in the UK. I worked at Burberry when they were based in Hackney and the design department was in an office above the factory. But then I saw everything gradually disappear and thought it was a terrible shame and thought it would be good to try and bring it all back to the UK again, so I guess that’s where it all stems from.”

Do you think more UK fashion brands should look to manufacturing closer to home?

“When I was working as a buyer overseas I could see the prices were going up and that the difference in price from buying in the UK to buying in the Far East was narrowing and step forward another generation there would be hardly any difference. I thought it we didn't save the skills we have left here currently in the future then we would have nothing left at all.”

“But I can already see that more UK brands and labels are looking to move their manufacturing back home. We still have the problem concerning growth capacity here and another issue is flow as there is not the skills base to increase production. What is holding a lot of manufacturers back from expanding is the lack of skills so its really important to support apprenticeship programs that are happening.”

“Part of the new initiatives we have this year at Meet the Manufacturer is ‘Meet the Trainer’ section which we are running with traders’ skills set. It is open to everyone looking to try out an apprenticeship or offering one in their factories and will allow potential candidates the chance to meet the manufacturers so they can help train the next generation of machinists, mechanics and things like that. Events like this will also hopefully help convince more young people to pursue a career in manufacturing and change the image of the UK manufacturing industry.”

Do you believe UK manufacturing will ever return to its former glory?

“I’d hoped so. Some people would say it depends on what the UK manufacturing industry is focusing on now, which is high-end and quality manufacturing more. But I think that there are actually quite a few fashion manufacturers in Leicestershire that are producing huge volumes of apparel and produce a lot of the ‘fast-fashion’ pieces for online retailers and they are very efficient at it. So slowly we are getting there.”

You teamed up with the Leicestershire textile hub this year for Meet the Manufacturer, what other new areas have you added?

“We are doing a with mens and womens wear ​fashion show​ featuring made in Leicestershire fashion to showcase what they can do. I think Leicestershire does get some ​bad press​ but they really are doing some great stuff as well and it is so close to London for buyers to visit, making it an ideal hub. So we wanted to show what was possible in Leicester. So I am quite excited about that since we did not have one last year and it is quite an undertaking.”

“We also teamed up with UKTI for 'Meet the Buyer'​ as last year a few buyers mentioned that the trade show was so busy, it was hard to find a quiet place to sit and talk business. So the new area will offer exhibitors and buyers a suitable area to come together and discuss business away from the hubbub of the trade fair. I think it’s really important that the whole industry pulls and works together on building this, so these partnerships are vital.”

“However, at the moment the show is still not so big that you can’t walk around the whole thing in a few hours we decided against categorizing the exhibitors into areas because we wanted to make sure that everyone was able to network with each other so we have not split it up into different product areas. Mainly when the show gets larger in the future we may have to do that to make it easier, but for now our goal is to make sure everyone blends in nicely together. Going forward we do plan to expand the areas, this year we have more home textile manufacturers showing and we want to develop more of a homeware area gradually. We have had sofa manufacturers who wanted to attend, but this year we just wanted to remain focused on fashion and textiles. We do not want to run before we can walk.”

What are you most looking forward to at Meet the Manufacturer 2015?

“For it all to be over so I can proper sleep! No, I am really excited about getting everyone together in one place. I think we have a really good selection of UK manufacturers this year, over 100, ranging from knitwear, to leather goods and trims so looking forward to that! And the party on the first night of course.”

Meet the Manufacturer 2015 will be running from June 3 to 4 at the Tobacco Dock, London.