UK procurement targets play a vital role in stimulating economic growth by driving domestic growth and jobs, supporting local businesses, and helping to create more sustainable supply chains. Public procurement gets the most attention, but the private sector can also play a key role in powering growth.
At the same time, there’s great demand for British-made goods among businesses and consumers alike. Around half of UK companies (47 per cent) and even more of the British public (58 per cent) prefer to buy products made in the UK over alternatives imported from other countries, according to Britain’s fourth annual Buying British Survey conducted in mid-January.
Yet, 6 in 10 British businesses have no UK procurement target in place.
That’s the uncomfortable truth: despite the high demand from both businesses and consumers, only 40 per cent of UK businesses have British procurement targets, according to our survey, which polled 1,000 decision makers working in procurement at British companies, as well as 2,000 consumers across the country.
In recent years, and particularly post-pandemic, we’ve seen an increase in awareness of the numerous intricacies around procurement and the importance of businesses knowing exactly what is going on in their entire supply chain, particularly in relation to responsibilities of environment, social and governance (ESG), no longer the reserve of just the big corporations.
Furthermore, last year’s international supply chain crisis – with bottlenecks and backlogs around the world – led to another sharp increase in localisation. Our survey of procurement professionals found almost half of British businesses (43 per cent) faced international shipping delays on goods purchased from other countries during the 12 months to January 2023.
More notably, of those UK companies that faced delays, a significant majority – two-thirds (66 per cent) – say their business started buying more British goods as a result. Although the extreme supply chain disruption of last year has now subsided, manufacturers are aware and alert to the fact that things can always change very quickly.
Supporting the UK economy and jobs is the key reason that both businesses and consumers prefer to buy British-made products over alternatives imported from other counties. Resilience to international supply shocks and cost-savings are other drivers. Environmental concerns are another strong factor behind UK companies deciding to shift to more domestic suppliers.
Made in Britain member company Furnitubes, for example, has begun recreating its product ranges with alternative materials that can be sourced locally in order to create a more sustainable supply chain. For its Fordham Range of benches, FSC Iroko sourced from West Africa has been replaced with hardwood timber reclaimed from sites around the UK, provided by British supplier, Ashwells Reclaimed Timber.
Of course, there are certain goods that both public sector bodies and British companies need to, or choose to, import from other countries – but we are experiencing a general shift towards more UK-focused supply chains, which is fantastic to see.
With an increasing shift towards more localised supply chains – providing British companies with resilience against international shocks, opportunities to get closer to achieving their ESG targets, and the power to fuel local growth – it’s now time to start seeing more British companies committing to UK procurement targets too.
John Pearce has been CEO at Made in Britain since 2015
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