Prime Minister David Cameron has backed Britain's reshoring movement following a visit to a Sussex-based manufacturer advocating the initiative.
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Fan maker Vent-Axia, which last week welcomed the PM to its Crawley headquarters, has brought its assembly lines back to the UK from China in recent years.
The new production lines have seen the creation of 35 new site jobs and increase the number of its assembly staff on site by 50% compared to before the reshoring.
Cameron addresses world leaders in Davos, Switzerland last week at the World Economic Forum, highlighting his intention to encourage and push for companies to reshore back to the UK. His presentation included news of a new advisory service in the UK, specifically to help companies formulate cost and value business cases for reshoring, and to assist them in finding the right business networks to support their decision.
Vent-Axia completed the reshoring of the balance of its domestic fan manufacturing, from China back to the UK, in January 2013 with the launch of three new production lines at its Crawley site. The culmination of a two-year project, the new assembly lines doubled the company’s on-site manufacturing of its residential unitary fans.
The company invested more than £350k in tooling for the new production lines, as well as investing in building works to incorporate the new manufacturing.
To see a map highlighting companies which government has recognised as reshoring examples click here.
On his visit Mr Cameron toured the production lines with Ronnie George CEO of Volution, Vent-Axia’s parent company, and spoke to new staff members who had joined the company since the reshoring.
Cameron said: “I was very pleased to visit Vent-Axia to see what a positive effect reshoring has had on the company and meet the people who work there. Vent-Axia is a great example of a company that has brought manufacturing back to the UK, creating jobs for hard-working people. As part of our long-term economic plan, we will continue to do all we can to make Britain the best place to start, grow and do business.”
Ronnie George, CEO at Volution Holdings, the group that owns Vent-Axia, said: “Reshoring the balance of our residential fan production to the UK made sense due to a number of factors not just from a competitive position, but also customer service and responsiveness is substantially enhanced when manufacturing our products locally.
“Moving Vent-Axia’s manufacturing back to the UK allows us to both supply products abroad to the wider Volution group and prepares us for further international expansion.”
