Make it British Podcast

One of the questions that came up on one of our recent British Brand Accelerator group coaching calls was so good, I thought I'd bring it to you on the podcast this week.The question was about whether a small business that makes in the UK should be offering a discount when someone opts in to their newsletter, and whether this strategy works.It opened a whole discussion amongst the

This week I’m bringing some very sad news - that the UK’s only cotton spinning mill, English Fine Cottons, which brought cotton spinning back to Greater Manchester in 2018, has very sadly gone into administration.In case you don’t know about the history of English Fine Cottons, it was set up by the technical textile spinners Culimeta-Saveguard, who invested £4.8m of its

Today's guests are Andrea and David Courtney from Courtney & Co buttonmakersBack in 2012 I was contacted by someone who was trying to save the UK’s last remaining horn button maker - Grove & Sons. He was looking for investors to buy up the machinery and pattern books from the business so that the art of natural button making in the UK was not lost.Well it turns out that t

This episode celebrates 15 years since I registered the domain makeitbritish.co.uk and busts some of the myths about UK manufacturing.You'll find out:Why I started Make it British and why I'm such a firm believer in UK manufacturing.The current UK manufacturing landscape.How the UK fashion and textile industry is made up of 1,000s of micro factories.How many garment factories there

Christopher Nieper OBE is the managing director of David Nieper, a womenswear business in Alfreton in Derbyshire. The firm was set up by Christopher's parents sixty years ago and is now one of the most vertical textile operations in the UK. Christopher recently invested in state-of-the-art digital printing equipment so that the factory can print it's own fabric onsite. David N

In this episode of the Make it British podcast, Karen McCluckie, the director of Bealies Adaptive Wear, shares her inspiring journey of creating adaptive clothing for wheelchair users and disabled individuals.Motivated by her son's disability and the lack of suitable clothing options in the market, Karen embarked on a mission to design stylish and functional joggers tailored to the

This week I’ve been in the Midlands visiting factories, which is always one of my favourite things to do.I’d planned to take my podcast mic with me and get an episode to you today with an interview with one of the manufacturers, but sadly I was in such a rush when I set off early Sunday morning that I left my mic behind!So on today’s episode instead I'm discussing one of the

Today's episode is all about selling and sales, and how it's closely linked to product development.A lot of creative business owners say that they aren't any good at selling, so the natural tendency is to drop their prices or default back to making more products.I'm going to give you a different way of looking at sales, so that selling doesn't make you feel like a used car salesman

Hear from 21 business founders as they give their tips on starting and growing a British-made brand.These snippets were taken from 21 different guest interviews on this podcast.If you want to listen to the full episodes you can find them as follows:Ep.142 Julie Deane, Cambridge Satchel CompanyEp.076 Jack Millington, Billy TanneryEp.143 Kath Whitworth, Celtic & CoEp. 41 Paul Smi

On today’s episode I’m chatting with Catherine Bedford, founder of Dashel Cycle HelmetsCatherine had the idea for an innovative and stylish cycle helmet whilst watching the London 2012 Olympics. She set about creating her vision, and it took 5 years to develop and launch the Dashel helmet. All Dashel helmets are made in the UK, and in this episode Catherine talks about:How she