Four lessons from 40 factories

Posted: September 08, 2025

Eighteen months ago, I quit my job and set out to criss-cross the UK visiting its factories. The journey has left me surprised, shocked and in love. It has completely reshaped the way I view manufacturers.

The catalyst for my pilgrimage came in August 2023, in the city of Leeds. I’d graduated from the university here many years prior. And it was in this city, while working at a call centre, that I bought my first tailored suit. Eventually, I left Leeds and moved to London.

Now, on my return, I planned to don my much-loved suit and say hello to the tailor who had skilfully crafted it for me. I arrived looking sharp. I was left deflated. Keith Wilson Tailoring was now a fried chicken takeaway.

I’m an economics journalist. I have been since I left that call centre. I know the realities of the modern global economy—but this stung.

I needed to know something. I needed to know if my pain at this stark illustration of the decline in UK manufacturing was purely emotional, or whether there were also negative economic considerations. To do that, I needed to go beyond the headline data and meet the people and places that make up the statistical trends.

The following month, I handed in my resignation and started work on The Factory Next Door.

Since then, I’ve hung out in more than 40 factories, speaking to the makers, the managers and the business owners, soaking up the sights and sounds that are so different from the glass offices in which I’ve spent my career.

Here are four key lessons I’ve learned on my travels:

1.    Manufacturers spread wealth across the country

Service sectors such as finance and legal are tremendously important for the UK economy. They provide jobs and generate wealth. But they tend to cluster in a small number of our largest cities.

Manufacturers, on the other hand, are found in our smallest cities, our towns, our villages. They bring employment and wealth to places that would otherwise have limited prospects. One of the most remote places I visited was the Ardnamurchan peninsula in Western Scotland—beautiful, dramatic and accessible via a winding single-track road that takes hours to traverse.

Here I found the Ardnamurchan Distillery. It opened in 2014 and is already winning awards for its whisky. Warehouse manager Ally’s family is from this area. “I lived here in my twenties, but then moved to Glasgow,” he told me as he rolled barrels around the large warehouse. “My wife and I, we always kind of thought about moving back, and then they built this distillery. So now my kids are in the school, which is important in an area with such a small population, you know,” Ally explained.

“The distillery, it’s brought young families back. And it's allowed young people who've spent their whole lives here, they don't need to move away.”

2.    Manufacturers keep our skills base broad

Not everyone is able to thrive and fulfil their potential sitting at a computer. Some people need different work environments to make the best use of their talent, and to feel they are truly contributing to society. Time and time again on my travels, I met people who told me how switching from a desk-based job to one making something has made them more confident and productive.

Take Jonathan, who works at Ernest Wright in the city of Sheffield. Standing in the company’s workshop, surrounded by old machines, he explained to me how he ended up here, crafting scissors.

“I worked in advertising and web development for seven years. And I kept saying to myself, ‘Get the next promotion, you’ll be happier.’ And I wasn’t.”

“So, I was walking down Broad Lane, the street just outside here, and there was a chalkboard out on the street that said, ‘Scissor maker wanted.’ I handed in my notice the very next day,” Jonathan told me with a smile. “The hook was working with my hands, working in a factory.”

Jonathan is now crafting scissors that sell around the world for more than $250 a pair.

3.    Heritage manufacturers often have sustainability baked into their processes

For many makers, sustainability is not something they shout about or push for PR purposes. It’s simply the way they do business. Eleanor Thatcher, fifth-generation cider maker from Thatchers Cider in Somerset, was guiding me through a warehouse full of huge oak vats as she explained part of the process to me.

“We capture the CO₂ from our fermentations, which in that environment is a by-product. Then we put it back in as carbonation or as bubbles into our pints,” she noted matter-of-factly. “It’s great to have a closed loop and not waste anything, I think, as farmers, we don't want to waste anything. It’s not in our nature to be wasteful.”

Eighty miles up the road, at the base of the picturesque Malvern Hills, sits the Morgan Motor Company. They’ve been making iconic two-seater sports cars here since 1909. Again, ask them about sustainability, and they simply see it as something that’s always been fundamental to their existence.

“Morgan is so inherently sustainable, it hasn't been this massive journey to find ways to really improve sustainability,” noted Jonathan Wells, Chief Design Officer.

As we walked around Morgan’s workshops filled with people banging and shaping and crafting, he explained, “Our cars are made from people power, with woods, aluminum, leather. We're using very organic, natural materials.”  And then Jonathan shared a statistic that blew me away. “In over 115 years, 90% of all Morgans are still accounted for. We still know who owns them and where they are. Which means we're not putting cars back into the ground.”

Not wasting things, making them last longer—these are beautiful examples of what it means to be sustainable.

4.    Domestic manufacturers build resilience into your economy

Crisscrossing the UK, I saw plenty of examples of how manufacturers are helping maintain domestic supply chains—fostering resilience in them. I also came across some who were building out local supply chains and helping to revive secondary industries.

In Buckinghamshire, in a bright and modern factory, there are pallets filled with oak and ash wood. They will be crafted into stunning chairs and tables, which will be sold around the world.

“The oak is from Northern Italy, the ash is from Switzerland,” explained Henry Tadros, chairman of Ercol Furniture, as we walked through his factory. “But we’re now doing a major drive for grown-in-Britain timber.”

From 1920 to 1988, Ercol used British timber. Then Dutch Elm Disease arrived and decimated the domestic wood industry.

“We’re working with the Forestry Commission. They are helping us build a supply chain, because it takes quite a bit of time,” Henry explains. “Once the wood is processed into plank, it will take a year for every inch of thickness to dry out. So, there's a huge lead time on getting this sorted.”

Ercol has committed to buying large volumes for some of their best-selling designs, to give sawmills and producers the confidence to invest in the machines. One British company helping another industry grow—literally.

What all manufacturers have in common

I’ve listed four lessons I’ve learned, but there are so many more.

On my adventure, I’ve seen how our manufacturers innovate, create, scrap and fight to overcome the many challenges they face—challenges that are put to them by overseas competitors, the government, consumers and the global economic landscape. But—and I don’t want this to sound trite—the thing that I found in every single factory I visited was love: love for their craft, or for the product they are producing, or the team they are part of or the community they sit within.

After 18 months, 40 factories and thousands of miles, I now know I was right to feel pain at the sight of another lost manufacturer—even a relatively small one on a shopping street in Leeds.

The pain was justified because there’s a strong economic rationale for maintaining a healthy domestic manufacturing sector.

I started The Factory Next Door feeling deflated. Today, I feel protective—keen to ensure we correctly value all of our manufacturers, big and small.

And Mr Keith Wilson, wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thank you for your craft.

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