One of the Midlands’ leading manufacturing advisors has warned of the effect “yoyo” surveys could be having on the sector.
Johnathan Dudley, national head of manufacturing at national audit, tax and advisory firm Crowe Clark Whitehill, said that while the industry was named as the UK’s fastest growing sector in the recent Autumn Statement, conflicting surveys seemed to decry the progress being made.
“There is no doubt that manufacturing is going through a resurgence, but we need to decide whether our glass is half full or half empty. We see one set of encouraging figures, confirming that manufacturing is doing well, and within days another survey appears that seems to question whether there is any recovery at all.
“Clearly the answer is that manufacturing is thriving, but the pace of growth and recovery does not necessarily make for a perfectly straight line on the graph,” he said.
He cited headlines in the third quarter of 2014 that appeared to contradict each other, and said that this constant picking over any and all data or subjective survey that appears about manufacturing was neither helpful nor productive.
“We see a headline on national television news saying that manufacturing hit a three month low in the final quarter of the year – but that is a three month low, against what has been a strong year.
“Another survey reports that the return of the Eurozone crisis and the slowing of the domestic economy has seriously dented the confidence of manufacturers.
“And yet a five minute internet search can find you just as many surveys and reports telling you that UK manufacturing is growing, albeit the pace of growth may quicken and slow at different times of the year and in response to changing market conditions.
“However, I would argue that the glass is most definitely half full and nd until we start to take this attitude as our default setting, we will be wishing a stop start recovery on ourselves,” he said.He argued that the British media’s propensity for doom and gloom was not reflected in the attitude of the vast majority of manufacturers he met, and he was witnessing strong manufacturing growth both at home and abroad.
“We are very quick to talk ourselves into a recession in the UK. We should try talking up our recovery,” he said.