So what does buying British really mean? The Made in Britain tag is becoming more and more popular and has a variety of important messages:

• it represents continued ethical production, decent wages and working conditions;
• it advocates an environmentally friendly process, and one which is not dependent on planes and shipping;
• it shows pride in British capabilities, and
• it presents home-grown opportunities for British people. 

With the nation being urged to buy British, PROMOTA caught up with two of its members, Clear Prospects and KeepMe Promotions to discuss their two very different views on whether buying British is a realistic prospect in a global business environment.

KeepMe Promotions suggests that buying British is actually a myth. In some industries, quantifying claims to Britishness is a relatively simple matter. Meat for example, from a local breed on an organic farm in the Home Counties can easily justify its claims to be British. In the promotional merchandise industry however, it is not always so easy to always source British produce.

Kevin Anderson, joint managing director at KeepMe Promotions, said: "When was the last time you saw a field of cotton among England's rolling fields, growing fabric for the eco-friendly bags we love to use? When was the last time you stumbled across a UK manufacturer of the micro-chips that are used in the ‘British' pen drives we depend on every day?

"Even though products such as woven eco-bags and pens may be British-made, by British companies in British factories, they are not completely British as the component parts are originally foreign and imported, suggesting that the claim of items to Britishness is little more than a marketing ploy," continued Kevin.

KeepMe therefore enforces the idea that the harnessing of foreign expertise and produce is not just okay, it's absolutely vital - both for the British company that employs it and for the UK clients who stand to benefit from better products at more affordable prices.

On the other side of the coin, Michael Robinson, managing director at Clear Prospects Ltd, disagrees and suggests that cheaper prices are only achievable because workers are so often treated badly. Michael also believes that "shopping abroad" goes totally against the "eco-friendly" trend which is so popular in the industry.

"Take non-woven, as an example and the ‘Bag for Life' which is, at the end of the day, made from plastic and comes all the way on a boat from the Far East...where is the low carbon footprint there? In the same vein, how, for example, can a company be sure that eco-friendly schemes such as recycling are being sufficiently enforced if their factory is in China? Surely sourcing and producing products in Britain is not only supporting British trade, but is also an attempt at being more eco-friendly?" says Michael.

Clear Prospects is a firm believer that brand owners and distributors really can make a difference to British trade. It would be, for example, possible to provide 40 full time jobs if the company manufactured one million bags in their British factory. With this type of incentive, companies should be offering these types of opportunities to British workers, instead of importing foreign bags, helping the British economy and the carbon footprint of the industry. 

There are clearly two sides to this argument. On the one hand, ‘buying British' means that we are providing jobs in Britain, and working towards continued ethical and environmentally friendly production. However, it can also be suggested that workers in certain foreign factories are treated no differently to those in Britain, and using imported produce is sometimes necessary as they are not available to us in Britain. This topic presents two good arguments and both are viable in the promotional merchandise industry. It is up to individual businesses to be open to discussion on the topic, while ensuring that whichever path they choose, they maintain the high standards of production which the industry is famous for.

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