Manufacturing still in the blood after 67 years
BIRMINGHAM is reputed to be the city of a thousand trades, with businesses manufacturing a vast range of goods from a wide range of raw materials.
I have been reflecting on this as I pass a turning point on my journey through life – for at the end of April, after 67 years of metal-bashing, I retired.
Sharp-eyed readers of this column will have noticed that the “credits” have disappeared from the end, and I am, in effect, a free agent.
I started my career in the aftermath of the Korean War, and finish in the midst of the Ukrainian conflict, so not a lot has politically changed... statesmen constantly disagreeing with each other.
However, to be based in the Midlands has been a privilege, the time flashing by. The constant public demand for something better and cheaper, stimulates Birmingham manufacturers to evolve novel concepts, so throughout my time, there has always been new challenges to be met, and concepts to be produced very quickly to satisfy an everchanging market at a competitive price.
The low point was the three-day working week introduced by a Tory Government in 1973/4 which was the result of industrial action in the coal industry.
Then it was a case of surviving to await better times. Far and Middle East competition has also been very painful down the years, causing many good companies to fall by the wayside.
But Birmingham today is an exciting place in which to manufacture a wide range of goods, supported by a host of specialist finishing firms, not to mention the best shop window in the world, namely the NEC.
I have enjoyed the trials and tribulations, and even a few successes, but the real pleasure has been that I have been involved in producing components and finished articles, not shuffling paper. The greater the complexity of a part, the more satisfaction is felt in having got it right.
I have not the slightest doubt, whatever the challenges, that Birmingham and the West Midlands will remain the home of creative manufacturing in years to come. It is in the blood – and skills and know-how will continue to be handed down from one generation to the next.