“WE don’t make anything anymore”. We’ve all heard it. Some of you have probably said it.
Admittedly the days of the industrial revolution, where tens of thousands walked through a single set of gates to the sound of the factory horn, making boats and ropes and linen and shirts, seem long gone.
But they have been replaced with innovative, agile, and no less world-renowned manufacturers in every community and in election week constituency in Northern Ireland.
Covid changed a lot and also proved a lot. We may have seen much of our capability move East, but what our incredible manufacturing leaders have created in its wake has proven to be resilient, creative, and critical. Whether it’s our food producers or our engineers or those who pivoted to meet the emergency on our health front line, the importance of having our own domestic production base has never been clearer.
With the complications of Brexit, supply chain challenges, rapid inflation, and an increasingly acute lack of labour, there’s no doubt that the 2020s has already seen the most extraordinarily difficult time to be in a manufacturing business.
Yet, despite all that has been thrown at them, the local sector has never been more upbeat. Our survey published last week shows that two thirds of firms are reporting themselves as growing compared to 41 per cent in July 2020 as we exited the first Covid lockdown.
Bringing in almost £15 billion of external income - more than what Treasury passes back to the Executive to run public services - means that we really don’t have an Northern Ireland economy if it wasn’t for our manufacturers. Which is why it is important that 39 per cent say they have increasing sales in the EU and 40 per cent increasing sales in GB.
And in employment, local firms are returning or creating jobs four times faster than their counterparts in Britain. Nothing seems capable of stopping the march of our makers.
That is why we have designated May as Manufacturing Month, to cherish and celebrate those in great businesses, populated by great people, and are making great products enjoyed in markets at home and abroad.
Blue chips like KPMG, Pinsent Masons, Lockton, and Barclays, as well as public sector partners Invest NI and the Further Education Colleges, recognise the contribution being made economically and socially by the sector which is why they’re supporting Manufacturing Month.
The Department for the Economy recognises it by picking out Advanced Manufacturing as an opportunity in its 10x Strategy. The Department of Finance has singled out the need to buy more locally to ensure supply chain resilience whilst rebuilding our economy.
Our firms demonstrate every day that they are capable of running towards and quickly tackling problems. Imagine the impact they would have in our cities, towns, and townlands if the right environment was created for them to be successful.
Post-election, we quickly need a Programme for Government, budget, and our Executive back taking local decisions for local people. We need the UK and the EU to provide the stability, certainty, simplicity, and affordability through agreement on our post-Brexit trading environment.
But most importantly, we need to celebrate, if only just for this month, the people who make our food and the table it rests upon, those who bring us our machines and motorway bridges, those who put the wings on the planes for our holiday flights, and those who are providing pharmaceuticals and the PPE to protect our nurses.
:: Stephen Kelly is chief executive of Manufacturing NI
