In today’s The Times, in an article about the Northampton Saints rugby team, it was revealed that this season’s string of poor results for the Saints has impacted on the local manufacturing industry. Dylan Hartley, the club captain, revealed that productivity falls in the town’s Carlsberg factory and at Church’s shoes, another of the club’s leading sponsors, when Saints lose.
Well, as a Saints fan, I feel their pain. But the UK manufacturing sector should take heart from the latest statistics from the CBI, who report that manufacturing order books were close to a 30 year high in the three months to December (monthly CBI industrial trends survey). There should be confidence in the sector, based upon output growth which was steady and at a brisk pace in the three months to December, at a rate far above the long-run average. 2018 is seen to have its challenge in maintaining that growth; but one hopes that the Government’s Industrial Strategy will make rapid progress to support manufacturing.
We can’t give your sports team any enhanced performance, but if there is a productivity enhancement to be made in your assembly operation next year, please talk to us.
