Grantrow Advisory Board: Manufacturing to lead the way

The inaugural meeting in Walsall covered economic impacts, digitisation, and staff retention strategies.

Members of the Grantrow Advisory Board were asked the question “What are you having to do in your business in response to economic conditions that you did not plan for at the end of 2023?” Their responses are shown below.

“After a very short-lived reprieve in shipping container prices in the latter part of 2023,” said Mike Gahir, Managing Director of Lakes Showering Spaces, “businesses find themselves back in unwanted but sadly familiar territory with many seeing a five-fold increase in container prices.

“Whilst not the highs of a few years ago when prices of USD20000 were not uncommon, the recent post-Christmas hikes to just shy of USD9000 was yet another blow to UK businesses importing from the Far East. The historic and recent lows in shipping prices have been around USD1500. The Houthi rebels have made the Suez Canal impassable, creating therefore longer journeys for commercial vessels that now sail via the Cape of Good Hope. This has added two weeks minimum shipment times which has therefore increased costs that have to be borne by businesses. Not only is there a need for additional fuel, most ships need additional security. Add to that the subsequent increased port congestion and it is yet another blow for beleaguered UK businesses.”

“We too are absolutely doubling down on our focus on net zero,” said Jonathan Dudley, Managing Partner of Crowe UK, “but our biggest drive is increasing investment in digitisation to drive efficiency and enhance data security.”

“We are focusing more on staff well-being and staff development to help us retain staff,” said Dr. Inez Brown, CEO and Founder of the consultancy Mckenzie Brown. “Staff retention is a growing problem for us as it is for many employers.”

Petro Nicolaides, special advisor to the West Midlands Mayor took a different view regarding the responsibility of businesses during a period of economic and geopolitical change. “None of the businesses I work with have needed to change their operating practice. The businesses I run or for which I am a non-executive have always been encouraged to ‘have something in their back pocket’ for changes in circumstances whether they are thrown a curve ball or are presented with an extraordinary new opportunity.”

As an endnote to this message, Grantrow’s sustainable energy team pointed out recent press articles showing a decline in the purchases of new EVs. “This is not correct,” said the spokesperson. “Leasing contracts are expiring and are being renewed, but for some reason, such renewals are not being counted as new EVs. The EV market is booming and risks over-reaching investment in EV infrastructure.”

The Grantrow Advisory Board was created in 2024 to develop thought leadership regarding small business growth. There are 5.5m small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs - less than 250 employees) in the UK. Total employment was 16.7 million (61% of all employees), whilst turnover was estimated at £2.4 trillion (53%). 4.1m SMEs have no employees. There are 200,000 SMEs with between 10 and 249 employees.