Reducing Costs, Boosting Quality: The Benefits of Reshoring with BEC

Remember when “Made in Britain” was the norm rather than the exception?

That reality is making a comeback. Companies are increasingly bringing manufacturing operations home from overseas – aka. reshoring.

Why? They’re finding that once you add up hidden costs, delays, quality issues and inventory challenges, overseas production simply doesn’t deliver the promised savings.

Let’s unpack the reshoring movement.

The Hidden Costs of Distance: Why Overseas Manufacturing Often Costs More Than It Saves

On paper, manufacturing overseas looks like a no-brainer. Lower hourly rates must mean bigger savings, right? Not quite.

Distance creates expenses that rarely show up in initial quotes. Products sitting on container ships for weeks tie up capital that could be working elsewhere in your business. Quality problems take ages to sort out. Communication gets tangled across time zones and languages.

Then there’s the inventory problem. Overseas production typically forces you into larger minimum orders with longer lead times. That means warehouses full of stock devouring cash.

With UK production, you can run smaller batches that match what you’re actually selling right now.

• No shipping costs or import duties
• Less cash locked up in inventory
• Quality issues fixed in days, not months
• No more pre-dawn video calls

Plus, you have the geopolitical angle. Tariffs, import regulations, customs rules? All primarily negated when dealing with domestic manufacturers. This is proving decisive to the reshoring movement’s momentum.

Eyes on the Floor: The Quality Advantage of Being Close

Walking onto a factory floor to see your products being made changes everything. Problems that might take weeks to identify with overseas suppliers become immediately obvious when production happens locally.

You can fix issues immediately – not after weeks of emails, calls and sample shipments crossing continents.

Quick Turns and Small Batches

Overseas manufacturing can’t match the speed and agility of domestic production.

With UK production, you can:

• Make just what you need when you need it
• Respond to surprise hits by making more quickly
• Adjust to seasonal changes without excess stock
• Test new ideas without massive commitments

This can prove key when ideating, designing, adapting, and bringing ideas to market.

The Stats Behind the Reshoring Trend

According to Warwick Manufacturing Group research, a remarkable 70% of UK manufacturing companies have already brought some production home since 2008. The breakdown shows that 52% of the company’s domestic capacity increased while 13% physically relocated production from overseas.

The telling part? Companies that reshored reported better business performance than those that didn’t. The trend continues, with 70% of those surveyed considering more direct reshoring.

The top reasons include being closer to customers (38% for direct reshoring, 37% for indirect), shorter lead times, more control over production, and avoiding supply chain problems revealed by recent global events.

How BEC Supports Your Reshoring Journey

BEC Group works with companies looking to bring production back from overseas, offering:

• Mould tool design and creation
• Tool inspection and repair service for tools returning to the UK
• Re-tooling services for better performance or tools that can’t be recovered
• Plastic injection moulding, insert moulding and overmoulding
• Product assembly
• Product design support

We’ve helped businesses across marine technology, children’s toys, medical products, and transportation bring manufacturing back to Britain.

The reshoring movement continues to grow. Whether you’re thinking about bringing some or all of your production back to Britain, we’re ready to help you weigh up the options.

Contact our team today to get started!

For more information on Reducing Costs, Boosting Quality: The Benefits of Reshoring with BEC talk to BEC Group