Best of 2017: The top news, views and posts from Make it British in 2017

Here we round up our highlights of 2017 as we continue to celebrate another great year for UK manufacturing

2017 has been a great year for UK manufacturing and for us here at Make it British, as we continue our campaign to support British-brands that make in the UK.

Traffic to the Make it British website has doubled this year, and we now have over 300,000 page views a month. That shows the growing interest for making in the UK and buying British-made products.

Interest from overseas has also increased massively, and International visitors to the website now make up 30% of the site’s traffic. USA, Canada, Germany and Singapore have shown the biggest growth in our visitor demographics.

So as we reflect on 2017 we take a little look back at our highlights from the past year.

January

• – Make it British founder Kate Hills appears on BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show to talk about the Government’s Industrial Strategy
• – We published the first of our Top 20 lists, which was 20 of the Best British Baby Brands
• – UK Manufacturing growth hit a 30 month high, as reported in our Facebook post.
• – Our Top 20 of British Yarn Producers was published and since then we’ve added several more thanks to the suggestions left in the 38 comments that the post has received

 

February

• – Our Top 50 British-made Bags list went live and has since had over 100,000 views
• – We announced the launch of a brand hall at our Meet the Manufacturer trade show, which went on to be a great success (see May)

March

• – The Independent ran a story about Make it British, and the team of mums that work here, in a piece entitled ‘Entrepreneur left her high-flying job to support small British manufacturers and business is booming after Brexit‘
• – Local sourcing starts to feature in the national press, as The Times asks ‘Is it time to start sourcing locally?‘
• – Kate Hills, founder of Make it British, named as industry influencer in Power List 2017
• – Our Top 30 of British-made shoe brands is launched and has been no.1 in Google searches for ‘British shoes’ for most of 2017
• – For International Women’s Day we wrote a piece about women setting up sewing factories in the UK which went on to be one of our most shared articles on social media
• – Kate went on a tour of manufacturers in Northern Ireland to find out more about the Irish linen industry

April

• – One of our most controversial posts was published, as we asked ‘Is making clothes in the UK really more expensive?‘ The debate on this one got particularly heated on Linkedin.
• – It was good news for UK manufacturing as survey finds ‘Made in the UK label is one of the most respected in the world‘
• – More great news, as textile ‘reshoring’ made the headlines, with more predicted to come back to the UK

May

• – Meet the Manufacturer, the only 100% British sourcing event, is declared a resounding success, as 185 exhibitors and 5,000 visitors from 27 different countries attended our yearly trade show at the Truman Brewery in London
• – We got something we didn’t bargain for when a fire alarm went off during a Facebook Live broadcast on the second day of Meet the Manufacturer

June

• – Our interview with womenswear designer Justine Tabak, who left corporate life to launch her own label struck a cord with many and was our most popular post on Facebook that month

July

• – Reshoring stories continued, as Clarks announced plans to open a factory in the UK and our post about this on Facebook reached over 78,000 people
• – Shoe designer Joseph Azagury continued the reshoring theme, in an interview on our Facebook live talking about how he has brought his footwear manufacturing back to the UK
• – Button manufacturing made a return to the UK too, in this article about Courtney & Co buttonmakers
• – ‘Why more British brands should open a factory in the UK’ was one of our most popular articles of 2017, and received over 3,000 shares on social media

August

• – We went behind the scenes with Freed of London, the famous ballet shoe maker
• – Export of British-made goods increase, and we looked at why every British-made brand should be exporting

September

• – The David Nieper fashion house told us how they were tackling the textiles industry skills shortage
• – In a very informative interview with the founder of the Isabella Queen, we found out how to launch a handbag brand
• – More good news, as Manufacturers defied Brexit gloom with rapid growth.

October

• – We visited manufacturer Surface Print to find out how they’re continuing the tradition of making wallpaper in the UK

November

• – Our second Make it British Forum conference welcomed 250 delegates who wanted to find out more about how to build a made in Britain brand
• – We launched our yearly Make it British Christmas Gift Guide which went on to have 24,000 unique visitors in six weeks

December

• – 2017 ended on a high as we announced the results of our annual UK textile manufacturers survey, carried out in conjunction with the BBC
• – The reshoring of cotton manufacturing to the UK made primetime news on Boxing Day in this feature that came about as a result of our textile survey