[Closed] British goods

There should be a huge blip in this month's balance of payments due to your outlandish consumerism.

Have a gold star and go to the top of the class.

😉

Laura Ashley plc (LSE: ALY) is a British textile design company now controlled by the MUI Group of Malaysia. It was founded by Bernard Ashley, an engineer, and his wife Laura Ashley in 1953 then grew over the next 20 years to become an international retail chain. Sales totalled over £276 million in 2000. Its products can be described as quintessentially English.[1]

Jesus wept you try to something for the UKPLC* and still get flamed on here

I commend your efforts

* trademark of the right wing who like to think we are business rather than people

That's owned Johndoh.

Agreed. No idea where it is made. Money still going overseas though.

I was going to get on On One 456 .Oh wait 😥

You shouldn't worry Jane. Jules' patriotic spending in the Ringers very week no doubt makes up for it. 🙂

[url= http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/kikiyohyoh ]My friend makes these and the are perfect cheristmas gifts[/url]

I bought a British made car once.

Shame that the engine seemed to have been made of cheese instead of metal... 🙁

Thank you for supporting the farmers...?

I have been asked by a local guy in the Far East to buy him two [b][u]Made In UK/GB/England/Scotland[/u][/b] causal shirts with collar. I have no problem buying them so long as they are within budget of £40 per shirt. I really want to buy him just to thank him for looking after my father when he was poorly

Let me simply say this ... you are shite i.e. British clothing manufacturers. Bloody hell I am really embarrassed to say I cannot even find anything that is made in the UK at all. Pissed me off badly after wasting three hours of my life searching ... is UK a province of China now?

Oh ya ... I am no right wing btw nor left. I just want to buy something special for someone. I don't care who own the brand so long as it is made in UK ...

😡

http://www.stillmadeinbritain.co.uk/clothing.html

I know many people (including myself) that still manufacture British made goods, made out of British products, in my case mainly fabrics.
The time to make these is such that often we take home below minimum wage.
My friend for instance bakes fantastic cakes, she too ends up being poorly paid and yet is so talented. Most of her baking equipment is British.

It's just the way things have gone, everyone wants something for virtually nothing imo.

Most one-person industries haven't been very profitable since the industrial revolution. Machines make stuff cheaply but they also need large capital investment.

Drac - Moderator

http://www.stillmadeinbritain.co.uk/clothing.html

Thanks for the link.

Errmmm ... nothing within budget so I guess I need to search again perhaps this time I will simply go for Designed in UK ... 🙄

Or merge the budget.

I have no problem buying them so long as they are within budget of £40 per shirt.

..and we can't use machinery to make shirts in this country because..?

Laura Ashley? Sadly not a English company. MrsH used to be a buyer for them pre-Malyasians

Spot on CZ, when you can't compete in Mass Produced (child labour int mills, or paying people nothing while stifling imports) then you go for value add. I was having the conversation with someone here in Tassie that thought you could set up some Ikea factories here and kick off manufacturing, no idea how he though we could compete with China/Vietnam etc.
Instead use the assets you have with IP - designers, artists and craftsmen and make something that adds more value.
At £6.31/hr you need to be making something with more quality and appeal, considering you can buy a T-shirt for less than that...

[url= http://www.mamnick.com/collections/all ]Mamnick - Made in England shirts from £70[/url]

The chap that owns the brand likes a bike ride too.

M&S are doing a 'Best of British' range at the moment too, eye-wateringly expensive though.

We are currently getting quotes for New double glazing and doors. One of the things swaying my decision is that one of the firms use Windows and doors designed and manufactured in the UK.

Things made here are usually crap and as likely made by people who generally give a toss about as much as their overseas counterparts, as consumers we are sold the story of Great Britishness 🙄

One of the things swaying my decision is that one of the firms use Windows and doors designed and manufactured in the UK.

That would be a consideration but only after quality and reviews, Made in Britain is not a quality stamp.

🙄

FWIW Mrs Crispo is part of a family business which has been manufacturing here for the last 50 years and still going strong. The pride themselves in the work they do and its what sets them apart from some of the mass produced tat they compete against. Pay your money and take your choice I guess.

My windows were made in the UK and still going strong they also come with a lifetime guarantee. A guy fits them himself his brother makes the windows the run at bare minimum costs so prices are low.

FWIW Mrs Crispo is part of a family business which has been manufacturing here for the last 50 years and still going strong. The pride themselves in the work they do and its what sets them apart from some of the mass produced tat they compete against. Pay your money and take your choice I guess.

It was more a reply to this....

Things made here are usually crap and as likely made by people who generally give a toss about as much as their overseas counterparts

Not that I'm saying some overseas don't take pride in their work .

CountZero - Member

So, chewkw, how long do you imagine it takes to actually make a shirt by hand? There's sourcing the materials, cloth, buttons, stiffeners, etc, marking out, cutting, stitching...
How much do you make an hour? Do you actually imagine that someone could make a shirt in half an hour, which they'd need to do to make any kind of profit, on £40, then consider a garage charges sixty-seventy quid an hour...

By hand? hmmm ... going back to pre-industrial revolution? No one make a shirt entirely by hand apart from my mother when I was a kid. Even my mom used Singer sewing machine. My shirt had 4 pockets (2 top and 2 bottom) to carry sling shot (catapult), small rocks, marbles, and fishing lines and hooks.

Okay, hour cost is high here ... oh well ... death to British manufacturing if they don't invest in machine. 😆

dogthomson - Member

Mamnick - Made in England shirts from £70

Looks good but let's see ... cheers.

There's the same debate going-on in Australia at the moment, although they are still drinking the "Australian made = better quality" coolaid.

Saying that - there's just been a very expensive lesson over here, courtesy of Ford and Holden.

Saying that - there's just been a very expensive lesson over here, courtesy of Ford and Holden.

mikewsmith - yeah, obviously if the UK made one's are crap then I won't be going near them, but from what I have seen of them, they seem just as good if not better than the other ones we have seen.

Looking online, a lot of window fitters seem to recommend them.

Yep, "Made in the UK" doesn't mean much anymore.

"Made in Germany" however...

I ordered a leather NATO-style watch strap on Monday, natural/undyed leather, 24mm wide, stainless steel hardware and red stitching. It arrived first thing this morning, beautiful thing...the leather is great quality, sheer craftsmanship and £24.99 postage paid. Made by a guy called Alex in England.

http://www.yellowdogwatchstraps.com/

I run a small designer knitwear company and do all the pricing.

We make stuff that is [url= http://www.makepiece.com/pages/Collections_2.aspx?pageid=80 ]unusual and distinctive[/url]. It's made with hand operated machines. We can change the designs quickly and alter patterns easily (if, for example, the black yarn needs a slightly different pattern to the blue) - to knit our designs with a fully automatic machine would require cutting edge five figure machines and then each design change would be expensive in programming time. To justify it we'd have to sell huge volumes, but our stuff is fairly niche so I can't see an economic argument to scale up that far. Not to mention that I think by the time we cost in the price of investment we'd not be any cheaper.

Our prices match other designer labels (yes, we do do[url= http://www.makepiece.com/pages/Priory-braided-dress2.aspx?deptid=535 ] a dress that costs the same as an Enve rim[/url] but we also do [url= http://www.makepiece.com/pages/Priory-sweater.aspx?deptid=487 ]simpler things[/url]) but I am often puzzled when I look at other similarly priced labels and find that they're manufacturing in the far East. I don't get what the justification is - if they're charging that much surely they can afford to reduce environmental impact and pay minimum wage?

Just been in ikea and noted the duvets are uk made

I wouldn't look good in a dress, even a $1500 custom made one! 😉

So I'd rather have the Enve rims, which are made in Utah, USA.

Laura Ashley English?
Born in Merthyr Tydfil and her first shop on Machynlleth.
Then she had her factory in Carno.
If you cut her in half shed have a red dragon emblem running through her like a stick of rock.

I think Mr Clarkson pointed out quite well, that British manufacturing is far from dead, it's just different to what we imagine.

And there don't seem to be any shortage of shirts made here either

[url= https://www.google.co.uk/#q=british+made+shirts ]https://www.google.co.uk/#q=british+made+shirts[/url]

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😀
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I wouldn't look good in a dress, even a $1500 custom made one!

So I'd rather have the Enve rims, which are made in Utah, USA.

S'OK, it just made me laugh the last time I had a 'How much? 8O' comment from a chap on a ride. I'm sure his wife had similar thoughts about his bike bling.

But yes, there are British goods around and it's good that people are thinking more about buying them now - the general story of development is that the production followed cheap wages but as countries developed, the difference in labour costs reduced and more production can be done in the UK/EU. However, in the meantime we've lost a lot of the manufacturing capacity and skills.

We source all our yarn in the UK (from British sheep) but whilst we've been around (nearly 10 years) we lost several spinners which has made my job harder. I visited a couple who working on the most amazingly antiquated machinery - I think that is where lack of investment really showed. Plus when one decided to retire at 80 odd, the value of the factory as building land far exceeded the value of the business. That was sad.

Anyway, don't despair. Amazingly several lines of DfS sofas are made in Accrington (my business partner's husband used to work there). We still do knitwear - not just my niche brand but [url= http://www.capricornsocks.co.uk ]excellent socks here[/url] & [url= http://jarbon.com ]here[/url]! There's quite a bit if you look around - we do [url= http://www.makepiece.com/pages/Tweed-Cap---The-Calder.aspx?deptid=448 ]a cap[/url] made out of fabric woven in Lancashire and stitched by a cap maker in Yorkshire. Sorry to ramble on, researching UK made stuff is one of the things I love doing.

I was a bit saddened to discover the new Brooks Cambium saddle is made in Italy and not down the road from me in Smethwick 🙁

Clover - you have put so well into words how things are atm. However I see change, things are getting better, slowly but surely.

I manage to sell many of my products in a local shop. The shop keeper makes an effort to label any of her goods that are British (mostly mine) so they stand out. Shoppers are getting sick of the (mostly tat) same old stuff that you can buy on any High street or supermarket, so discerning shoppers are looking out for British made goods, which on the whole are usually of a decent quality and original.

As for Laura Ashley most if not all of their fabrics are printed in Wales.

Just noticed this thread, have a look at www.kimwetu.com, makes intresting reading and sorts out what's really English (Or not)I've started to use it quite a lot recently

Clover/Bunnyhop well said. So many people seem to be defeatist or dismissive about our ability to make great products in the UK.

My wife is a woven textile designer and has worked for companies who export most of their cloth to all corners of the world, provide the fabric and knitwear for brands like Burberry and Chanel, or make tweed for estates in Scotland. It constantly amuses me that we can see a Paul Smith jacket in a shop for £800 yet she will point out that Paul Smith often refused to pay the prices charged by UK cloth manufacturers.

Music!

Probably around 80% of the music I buy is made by British artists.

[img] [/img]

and football.

Is there anything that competes against the premier league as a national marketable sports product worlwide?

Absolutely fantastic if you would like a woolen garment, I'm sure the textile industry is capable of producing profitibly in the UK and to a quite acceptable level of quality

In terms of Cycles then it appears Brompton are the wooly jumper maker of the bike world, How typically British

Stick to the import tat clinging on to some British roots if you want anything modern then? Or buy Orange.