Autumn is here, the days are growing shorter, the nights are getting colder and there is a hint of wood smoke in the air.
The glorious late summer of Olympics and Paralympics now seem so long ago. Now, if you believe certain politicians and commentators, it is back to the grindstone of an uphill struggle against a falling economy and failing confidence.
No sooner was the summer over, than everyone from the corner shop owner to the Governor of the Bank of England has been crying doom and gloom and promising another seven years of austerity.
And yet, over a washout summer, with not only Olympics but Queen’s Diamond Jubilee holidays, floods and other distractions, we have been surprised by the robust health of our business.
A major factor driving the upturn in the surface finishing sector is the diversity of companies and applications that are entering the sector every day. The Riley Surface World website accepts daily registrations from companies and individuals expressing interest in our products and services. Here are just a few examples of the activities of those companies that have registered in recent days:
Nautical ropes, electrical switchgear, classic motorbikes, decorative glassware, wood carvings, razor wire, knife sharpeners, brewing, fencing, fire arms, currency, flour milling, metal sculpture, roof tiles, health foods…I could go on. In the forty five years that our company has been trading, there has never been such diversity in the marketplace.
What this tells us, above all, is that there is a re-balancing of the economy from the public to the private sector. This process has actually been building for several years; we are a nation of entrepreneurs that is always bursting with ideas. This is now accelerating with government encouragement.
The transition barely registers on the macro-economic scale, so it will make precious little difference to our industrial output figures or our balance of payments for several years. It is also not without pain, and in that sense Sir Mervyn King is probably right.
The government is pursuing a strategy to grow our major industries, such as automotive, aerospace, life sciences and new technology. The more growth there is for the prime movers, the more this will trickle down to the suppliers of components and services, not least in the surface finishing industry. However, it is the underlying growth in small-scale manufacturing of the kind highlighted earlier which is creating daily opportunities for a company like ours.
One of the side effects of this trend is that we are starting to experience shortages of key items of used process machinery. Examples of this include high temperature ovens, wheel blast machines, aqua blast machines, enclosed vapour degreasing systems and automatic polishing machinery.
In the short term, the slack will be taken up by overseas original equipment manufacturers, with the Chinese inevitably leading the way. What our industry needs is a strategy to encourage UK based building of some of these vital pieces of equipment that are now in growing demand. We also need to look closely at the marketing and distribution, with emphasis on the key message: ‘Made in Britain’.
If we, as an industry, are to take full advantage of this resurgence in niche manufacturing, we must collectively produce a plan to put the infrastructure in place. We are fortunate to have some excellent trade associations in the surface finishing industry. Now is the time for them to prove their worth.
