Most people living in the UK experienced huge changes in their daily lives during 2020 as the world was left reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2020 was also the year that the UK officially left the EU.
Over the last year, most of us have started to appreciate the value of shopping locally rather than buying from overseas.
Buying products made in the UK offers many advantages over shopping from companies abroad for both individual consumers and the local economy.
Here’s our top 5 reasons why you should buy British made brands.
1. It Can Be Cheaper
Many online shoppers have been caught out with import duties when shopping from EU countries after Brexit. While you may be used to paying extra charges when shopping from the USA, up until recently we’ve been able to shop from European websites as easily as those based in the UK. However all this changed in January 2021.
Now, if you order items worth over £135 from outside the UK, VAT is not included in the price. Instead you’ll have to pay this tax (currently 20%) to the courier when it is delivered.
Import charges will be applied for all, which may be anything up to 25% of the value of your order.
You can also expect the courier to add on additional to cover additional checks and admin for goods arriving from the EU
Some EU businesses have opted to stop shipping to the UK completely, either because they’re not registered for VAT in the UK, or to avoid confusion over charges.
2. It’s Kinder to the Environment
When you buy products that are made in the UK the carbon footprint is much smaller as they don’t have to be transported thousands of miles.
Products that use only locally-sourced materials (such as wool) or recycled materials in production reduce this footprint even more.
The UK textile industry has a reputation for providing some of the best quality fabrics in the world to premium fashion houses all over the globe. Now, textiles produced in the UK are also becoming more sustainable as mills and manufacturers invest in new technology and processes.
3. It Supports the Economy and Jobs in the UK
Choosing to buy British brands feeds money back into the UK economy, rather than supporting other countries.
This is especially important after the impact of COVID-19, which has forced many businesses to close and caused many job losses.
When you support British brands and help them to grow, you help to create jobs and up-skill the local workforce.
It’s often cheaper for the consumer to buy brands that have moved production to third-world countries. But this comes at the loss of local jobs as UK factories and production facilities are moved overseas.
Some major British brands had already started to bring production back to the UK. Now in the wake of Brexit and COVID-19, it looks likely that more are set to follow after experiencing some of the risks associated with an international supply chain.
4. You’ll Have Confidence That the Items You Buy Are Produced Ethically
Cheap labour overseas is not only problematic because it reduces local job opportunities, but also because this cheap labour often means poor working conditions.
The garment factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013 highlighted the hidden human victims of fast fashion.
When you buy products produced in the UK, you have peace of mind that no child labour was involved, and the production workers were paid fairly in safe working conditions, though there have been notorious exceptions to this, such as revelations about Boohoo and Leicester last year.
5. The Quality is Higher
As companies strive to squeeze more profit by moving production overseas, many have also opted for high-volume, low-cost production, which results in inferior products.
Smaller-run UK-made products tend to cost more than mass-produced versions from China and other countries, but you can often be assured of a higher quality product when you buy British.
