The boss of an award-winning British manufacturer has said the company will offshore its factory operations to the East after Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ recent Autumn Statement, which included £40bn in tax rises.
Kevin Hancock, managing director of Connectix Cabling Systems—which won a Daily Mail national award in 1999 for the ‘most promising firm of the new millennium’—said he will close his four UK factories and move operations to India or China. Hancock blamed Reeves’ £25bn National Insurance tax rise and increases to the national minimum wage for making it impossible to produce in Britain.
“Manufacturing in Britain will die. It has already died, in my view,” Hancock said.
Braintree-headquartered Connectix, which specialises in making fibre optic cables for internet providers, employs around 150 factory staff in the UK, all of whom will be offered new jobs within the business.
Hancock warned that Connectix’s exit could be the first of many in the sector.
“There’s a cliff coming for manufacturing,” he told the Sunday Telegraph.
He said: “The minimum wage has gone up again after a 10% rise last year, so that’s 16% in two years.
“And it just goes on, you look at the NI rise which is massive for us all and I can’t see Labour not increasing that further.
“The saddest thing is we actually want to be made in Britain.”
Hancock has grown Connectix to become one of the largest UK manufacturing, production and distribution facilities for specialist cables. The business posted £50m of sales last year.
He added: “What I’d say to Labour is they should stop trying to use business as a cash cow and start seeing business as a partnership rather than just taking from them.”
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