How to BUY BRITISH
Here’s a challenge. Take half an hour in a large supermarket to buy 10 ordinary domestic items ranging from owers, light bulbs and tea towels to cakes, cooking oil and tinned food – all of which must have been made and produced in Britain. Easy, huh? A doddle, in fact, surely leaving time for a cup of (foreign) coffee.
Well, no. In fact, having embarked on this very quest, I can tell you that it is very opposite of easy. Hard, frustrating and seriously time-consuming is more like it.
First, it’s actually rather difficult just to locate the ‘made in the UK’ information on the labels and then decipher the real meaning behind weasel words, such as ‘made’, ‘distributed’ ‘produced’ and ‘manufactured’ in Britain.
But the biggest obstacle to buying British is the simple fact that very few daily necessities are still made and produced on a mass-market scale here.
Tea towels? They now come from China, India or Bangladesh. Light bulbs? China, India, Poland. Tights? China and Italy. Knickers? China, India and Bangladesh again. Cereal? It might be made here, but it’s produced by multinational conglomerates, possibly paying minimal tax. It rather begs the question, what on earth is everyone doing in the UK? In terms of manufacturing, not very much, it seems.
Of course, that’s not entirely true. You may not be able to find a British light bulb, but there are still plenty of small companies producing things such as bread, cheese and biscuits and quite a few more making products such as shoes and even knickers – it’s just that you have to search them out. They tend to be boutique businesses with limited reach and production capacity. Which brings you to the next problem when buying British goods – nding the money to pay for them. They are expensive.
That’s partly due to labour costs, but also the concomitant problem that these companies are necessarily small, and often based in out-of-the-way places. The upside, however, is that their goods are likely to be well made and long-lasting.
During my British supermarket sweep experiment, my daughter had to buy simultaneously the same 17 items – only in her case, they could come from anywhere.
Reunited at the cash desk, we compared notes. The British basket came in at £69; the foreign basket a mere £41. It was a sobering moment. The one redeeming feature was, as my daughter pointed out, that the British basket looked much more appealing.
The experiment, though brief and unscientific, did make me want to find out if it’s possible to live entirely on Britishmade goods.
One family that has been doing just that is Emma and James Bradshaw and their twoandahalfyearold son, Lucan. ‘It was actually James’s idea,’ explains Emma, a primaryschool teacher. ‘He wanted to find out if it’d be possible to live only on things produced in the UK.
‘Initially it did cost us more, but it’s now de nitely cheaper on food. That’s because we buy seasonally and locally. The di culties arise with small, disposable, everyday items.’ The Bradshaws are based in Kent, and now have all their fruit, veg, meat and fish delivered by local box schemes. They receive up to six boxes a month, and, says Emma, that is good for small UKbased producers.
‘Apart from being cheaper, boxes are much more interesting, too,’ she adds. ‘Because you don’t know what you’re getting; it gets you out of a culinary rut.’
Clothes and other domestic items are more of a problem, especially with a small child who tends to outgrow out ts almost as soon as you buy them. ‘I buy clothes for threeyearolds now,’ says Emma, ‘and I put much more thought into what I buy. For myself, I buy investment items online, or vintage and 1950s retro stuff.’
Has she found anything particularly difficult to get hold of? ‘Well, Britishmade bras, batteries, disposable nappies and mobile phones are all tough to find.’ And the only Britishmade mobile the Bradshaws have discovered costs £5,000 – ‘and that was in their essentials range,’ says Emma.
So what has been her best UK manufacturing find?
‘Shoes,’ she says. ‘There’s a young designer called Sarah WatkinsonYull. She was funded by the Prince’s Trust and handmakes shoes in the UK.’
One of the family’s other discoveries was the Tregothnan tea plantation in Cornwall. Astonishingly, it grows its own Earl Grey tea – and other blends – on an estate near Truro.
So what might help bang the drum for British manufacturing?
‘Labelling,’ says Emma. ‘There’s de nitely a place for an independent Kitemark that could be used on clothing and other goods. At the moment, you can make a handbag in China, import it to the UK, attach a handle and then legally mark it as “Made in the UK”.’
Three months into their experiment, however, and the Bradshaws are going strong.
‘We started out sceptical,’ says Emma, ‘but by the end of the first month we were finding it fascinating, and the more we go on, the more fascinating it becomes.
‘It’s changed my life; I now find it incredibly exciting to discover a brand of dishwasher tablet that’s made in the UK.’
Well, no. In fact, having embarked on this very quest, I can tell you that it is very opposite of easy. Hard, frustrating and seriously time-consuming is more like it.
First, it’s actually rather difficult just to locate the ‘made in the UK’ information on the labels and then decipher the real meaning behind weasel words, such as ‘made’, ‘distributed’ ‘produced’ and ‘manufactured’ in Britain.
But the biggest obstacle to buying British is the simple fact that very few daily necessities are still made and produced on a mass-market scale here.
Tea towels? They now come from China, India or Bangladesh. Light bulbs? China, India, Poland. Tights? China and Italy. Knickers? China, India and Bangladesh again. Cereal? It might be made here, but it’s produced by multinational conglomerates, possibly paying minimal tax. It rather begs the question, what on earth is everyone doing in the UK? In terms of manufacturing, not very much, it seems.
Of course, that’s not entirely true. You may not be able to find a British light bulb, but there are still plenty of small companies producing things such as bread, cheese and biscuits and quite a few more making products such as shoes and even knickers – it’s just that you have to search them out. They tend to be boutique businesses with limited reach and production capacity. Which brings you to the next problem when buying British goods – nding the money to pay for them. They are expensive.
That’s partly due to labour costs, but also the concomitant problem that these companies are necessarily small, and often based in out-of-the-way places. The upside, however, is that their goods are likely to be well made and long-lasting.
During my British supermarket sweep experiment, my daughter had to buy simultaneously the same 17 items – only in her case, they could come from anywhere.
Reunited at the cash desk, we compared notes. The British basket came in at £69; the foreign basket a mere £41. It was a sobering moment. The one redeeming feature was, as my daughter pointed out, that the British basket looked much more appealing.
The experiment, though brief and unscientific, did make me want to find out if it’s possible to live entirely on Britishmade goods.
One family that has been doing just that is Emma and James Bradshaw and their twoandahalfyearold son, Lucan. ‘It was actually James’s idea,’ explains Emma, a primaryschool teacher. ‘He wanted to find out if it’d be possible to live only on things produced in the UK.
‘Initially it did cost us more, but it’s now de nitely cheaper on food. That’s because we buy seasonally and locally. The di culties arise with small, disposable, everyday items.’ The Bradshaws are based in Kent, and now have all their fruit, veg, meat and fish delivered by local box schemes. They receive up to six boxes a month, and, says Emma, that is good for small UKbased producers.
‘Apart from being cheaper, boxes are much more interesting, too,’ she adds. ‘Because you don’t know what you’re getting; it gets you out of a culinary rut.’
Clothes and other domestic items are more of a problem, especially with a small child who tends to outgrow out ts almost as soon as you buy them. ‘I buy clothes for threeyearolds now,’ says Emma, ‘and I put much more thought into what I buy. For myself, I buy investment items online, or vintage and 1950s retro stuff.’
Has she found anything particularly difficult to get hold of? ‘Well, Britishmade bras, batteries, disposable nappies and mobile phones are all tough to find.’ And the only Britishmade mobile the Bradshaws have discovered costs £5,000 – ‘and that was in their essentials range,’ says Emma.
So what has been her best UK manufacturing find?
‘Shoes,’ she says. ‘There’s a young designer called Sarah WatkinsonYull. She was funded by the Prince’s Trust and handmakes shoes in the UK.’
One of the family’s other discoveries was the Tregothnan tea plantation in Cornwall. Astonishingly, it grows its own Earl Grey tea – and other blends – on an estate near Truro.
So what might help bang the drum for British manufacturing?
‘Labelling,’ says Emma. ‘There’s de nitely a place for an independent Kitemark that could be used on clothing and other goods. At the moment, you can make a handbag in China, import it to the UK, attach a handle and then legally mark it as “Made in the UK”.’
Three months into their experiment, however, and the Bradshaws are going strong.
‘We started out sceptical,’ says Emma, ‘but by the end of the first month we were finding it fascinating, and the more we go on, the more fascinating it becomes.
‘It’s changed my life; I now find it incredibly exciting to discover a brand of dishwasher tablet that’s made in the UK.’
MADE IN BRITAIN
- Tregothnan A Cornish company that grows tea near Truro: 01872-520000, www.tregothnan.co.uk
- Dorset Cereals Muesli, porridge, cereal bars and more: 01305-751000, www.dorsetcereals.co.uk
- Kent Brushes Toothbrushes, hairbrushes and combs: 01442-232623, www.kentbrushes.com
- Sharp Microwaves, manufactured in Wales: 01978-853939, www.sharpmanufacturing.co.uk
- Yull Shoes: www.yull.co.uk
- David Nieper Women’s clothes: 01773-836000, www.davidnieper.co.uk
- Kent Veg Box All British produce: 01622-747888, www.kentvegbox.co.uk
- Marko John’s A family firm making superior British socks since 1895: 07793-737183, www.marko-johns.com
- Olio of Oxney Table olives available now, British olive oil imminent: www.olioofoxney.co.uk
- Quex Foods Extravirgin rapeseed oil from Kent, and British crisps: 01843-848827, www.quexpark.co.uk
- Rainbow Trugs Food, child and animal-safe containers in bright colours: 07708- 482588, www.rainbowtrugs.com
Useful websites: