Supply, raw materials and import costs top UK manufacturing concerns

Published by

Peter Davison

Johnathan Dudley

Nearly 90 per cent of UK manufacturing firms have been affected by the price and availability of raw materials in the past year, according to the annual Manufacturing Outlook Survey conducted by national audit, tax, advisory and risk firm Crowe, in partnership with the Confederation of British Metalforming (CBM).

And 78 per cent say they have been affected by supply chain issues, with 66 per cent reporting that import costs have risen in the past 12 months.

A significant 69 per cent are considering reshoring.

Johnathan Dudley, Midlands & South West Managing Partner and Head of Manufacturing at Crowe, said: “Manufacturers’ financial results made for interesting reading as many firms recorded a strong showing in reporting for financial years ending December 2022 and March 2023.

“This reflected the optimism showed in our winter survey, when 60 per cent of firms said they expected their turnover to grow in 2023.”

Some sectors, however, have clearly been hit harder than others, suggests the report.

Visit Hampshire Biz News for bright, upbeat and positive business news from the county

Manufacturers exposed to the retail sector saw sales impacted by the dampening effect of interest rates and inflation on consumer spending.

Businesses in automotive manufacturing, aero and rail supply chains were able to pass on price inflation, whereas white electricals and food and beverage price rises have stunted sales for manufacturers exposed to retail headwinds.

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.