We need to crack down on the cowboys and push local tech manufacturing

The PC Surgeon’s David Stroud explains how the UK’s manufacturing industry needs to crack down on its cowboys, and highlights the importance of homegrown products…

Large international manufacturers have sewn up the lower and mid end of the marketplace. This has forced independents to evolve and to diversify into the high end/specialist market. This is perfectly fine, however, with the success of some independents like Utopia, larger manufacturers are getting jealous of their success and are now unfairly muscling into this market with their tin can tech (Ford engines wrapped up in a Jaguar shell).

Building tech like Aston Martin cars is not viable yet for small independents, as they don’t have the investment, infrastructure nor customer base to support this venture en masse. But with the right focus and talent, we independents can rise to the top.

We need independents to focus and specialise in their field of expertise, for distributors and component manufacturers to be more supportive, and for large retailers to call it a day. Remember we are a proud nation of shopkeepers who prefer to offer a local and personalised service; we are not a faceless corporate.

We need to crack down on the cowboys (both big and small) in retail, distribution and manufacturing and completely remove them from the market. We need to bring into account a pricing philosophy that allows us to be a sustainable industry that also shows our respect for local manufacturing. The days of cheap, cheap, cheap and now, now, now, are long gone.

You would never buy an Aston Martin, or respect it if it cost £1.99, so why does this rule not apply to our tech purchases? The UK consumer needs to be educated. However, due to all the current noise and confusion in the retail scene, price has taken priority before customers’ part with any money, and this is the core of the problem.

Planned obsolescence is the unseen corruption that is so prevalent in this industry (incidentally not a British idea) and is deeply rooted into the core of the customers’ perception when purchasing tech. Therefore it’s in my opinion that planned obsolescence has completely destroyed the local manufacturing industry. We just can’t keep up.

The UK is highly reliant on foreign imports, often where the product is adapted for the UK and not designed for the UK. This means that our market is directly affected by other countries’ economic conditions, with their own goals and objectives in mind.

Traditionally we are a make-do-and-mend society and our production philosophy is to use high quality components and produce low volume, where today we are importing a philosophy of low quality and high volume and becoming a throwaway society.