14 April 2015
Still a Long Way to Go for UK Manufacturing Research Finds
Manufacturing in the United Kingdom still has a long way to go to compete with other countries in Europe, statistics compiled by Staffordshire-based company European Automation show.
In George Osborne's Budget announcement, the Chancellor emphatically advised that manufacturing output has grown more than four times faster than it did in the decade prior to the economic crisis.
Manufacturing itself contributes around 10% to the UK's overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with the sector worth around £172 billion.
European Automation has pooled as much recent data from a number of sources across the internet to create an informative and visual depiction of just where Britain stands against its neighbours in terms of key data such as employment, individual sectors and also manufacturing in total
Figures sourced show that Germany's manufacturing industry contributes 219% more to its national economy than the United Kingdom and France 22% more.
The data itself has been converted into British Pounds Sterling using annual average exchange rates in order to ensure that it can be compared easily by users. All the data can be viewed at http://www.euautomation.com/uk/manufacturing-across-europe
Jonathan Wilkins, Marketing Manager at European Automation, said: "The UK manufacturing sector is showing green shoots of progression and that is a very positive sign indeed but figures still show there is a long way to go before we are competing with other countries.
"As a company working with many of these industries on a daily basis, we can see that there is a general optimism in the various sectors that we have an involvement in.
"Due to this, we have pulled together as much data as possible in order to ascertain just where Britain stands in comparison to other nations in order to create both a visually appealing and informative resource.
"Statistics pulled together by ourselves show, as a country we are still lagging behind in key areas. We need to keep investing and ensuring manufacturing stays on British shores instead of going to European or international competitors."
One area that has been given a boost is the automotive industry, with news of a £100 billion investment to try and position Britain as the leader in driverless technology.
As part of the research, data has been sourced to compare key industry sectors and findings show that the automotive sector is one area that needs investment to try and compete with other nations who have major brands manufacturing in their own countries.
"The £100 billion investment is a step in the right direction in such a key industry" adds Jonathan Wilkins.
"Hopefully this can be invested in more jobs and technological development which ultimately has a wider and far-reaching multiplier effect on both the national economy and other sectors."
NB: data taken from 2013 or nearest year if unavailable.
contact
Mark Fullilove at Search Laboratory on 0113 21 21 211 or by e-mail to mark.fullilove@searchlaboratory.com
