The Factory Next Door

We’ve hit number 50 on our list of the greatest things we make here, so I thought it would be nice to share some of my favourite moments, as well as your most replayed clips. Since we started The Factory Next Door, we’ve spent hours and hours hanging out with business owners, chatting to them on factory floors and in their offices. They come from different walks of life, creating a wide range of beautiful products. But there’s a unifying factor that comes up time and again in our chats. An element that is repeatedly identified as being crucial to success. Family. Mum, Dad, Brother, Sister, Children – they are often credited with direction and drive. Even when they are not employed by the company, we hear about their influence on business strategy. We start in the city of Gloucester – and close to its beautiful cathedral sits the shirt-maker Emma Willis (Ep. 21). It’s a company that makes shirts for royalty, actors, musicians, as well as for injured service personnel through its Style for Soldiers charity. In this clip, Emma reveals where her company’s strong sense of societal responsibility comes from. For our second clip, we travel to Walthamstow, North London. Here, Han from Black Horse Lane Ateliers (Ep. 24) is explaining to us why he pivoted from making clothes for high street brands to launching his own label making the very finest jeans. For the final clip, we go back to the beginning, to the custom motorbike (Ep. 4). For this episode we went to hang out with husband-and-wife team Vic and Lin from Destiny Cycles – makers of the finest choppers this side of the Atlantic. In this clip, Lin discusses her pride for Vic’s work. Say hello on Instagram @thefactorynextdoor

We’ve hit number 50 on our list of the greatest things we make here, so I thought it would be nice to share some of my favourite moments, as well as your most replayed clips. Our manufacturers are undoubtedly facing strong headwinds. Many business owners tell me it’s tougher now than it’s been for decades. Despite this, on our travels around the country, we’ve met a few extraordinary people who have decided to face the challenge head on and buy a factory.   In this compilation, we begin in Stoke-on-Trent, where we met the wonderful artist, Susan Rose (Ep. 41). Before asking her why she’d recently taken-over a pottery – I wanted to know from the previous-owner Tony, why he was exiting the family business. In Ep. 30 we met Paul Jacobs. He lives in the Netherlands but spends a lot of time in Sheffield these days. Can you remember why he bought scissor-maker Ernest Wright? For our third clip we stay in Sheffield, with Buffalo Systems – which makes outdoor clothing. Having just bought the factory, Ben Fogle and James Sleater (Ep. 42) invited us along to have a look around, but before asking them why they’d bought the brand – we wanted a quick gossip with the team. Say hello on Instagram @thefactorynextdoor

We’ve hit number 50 on our list of the greatest things we make here, so I thought it would be nice to look back at some of my favourite moments from the show, as well as your most replayed clips. Over the coming weeks, I’ll share a few compilations. We’ll start with moments that hit me hard. The Factory Next Door might be about manufacturing, but it’s also a love letter to people making things in our communities; people who have stories to share. In this compilation, we begin on the Isle of Wight, at the RNLI’s factory making inflatable lifeboats (Ep. 23). Who would have thought the name of a boat would leave me choked up? In Ep. 37 when I sat down with Merry from Border Oak to ask why she does what she does, her love for her dad caught me completely off-guard. Finally, we have a clip from Ep. 46. If you want to manufacture things in Britain, your company must show extraordinary resilience – but when I started my chat with Naomi from lingerie company Edge o Beyond, I had no idea about the personal resilience she’d brought to her brand.   Say hello on Instagram @thefactorynextdoor

When you’ve been learning your craft for almost two and a half centuries, you can confidently call yourself ‘the world’s finest’. John Smedley have been making their knitwear in Derbyshire since 1784.Number 50 on our list of the greatest things we make here is The Knitted Polo Shirt.On this week’s The Factory Next Door we head to Matlock to visit John Smedley’s historic Lea Mills.Managing Director Jess McGuire Dudley gives us a tour as she reflects on her first year in charge. We hear why there’s a renewed interest in apprenticeships at the factory, consider the therapeutic qualities of linking, discover which job requires the steadiest hand, and chat about collaborating with actor Bill Nighy.Say hello on Instagram @thefactorynextdoorThe Factory Next Door is supported by AVEVA, a leader in industrial intelligence. Sign up to their bi-weekly newsletter about manufacturing here:www.aveva.com/factory

Spend a day in any major city from Seoul to San Francisco and you’ll spot them weaving through the traffic – a bicycle with distinctive small wheels and arched top tube.Brompton’s folding bike is an example of a great British design that’s loved around the world. More than 1.2m have now been sold.Number 49 on our list of the greatest things we make here is The Folding Bicycle.On this week’s The Factory Next Door we head to Greenford in West London to meet the team making these beautiful bikes.CEO Will Butler-Adams OBE explains why they are an engineering company that makes bicycles, not the other way around. We go for a quick ride, see bikes being beaten up, and learn why manufacturing in London is integral to Brompton’s future.Plus, we chat about what success looks like, learn where the name ‘Brompton’ came from, consider truck-driving in clogs, and explore how businesses can help drive positive change.Say hello on Instagram @thefactorynextdoorThe Factory Next Door is supported by AVEVA, a leader in industrial intelligence. Sign up to their bi-weekly newsletter about manufacturing here:www.aveva.com/factory

Over the past 20 years, the amount we spend on shoes in the UK has tripled. It now stands at £14bn.During the same period, our domestic footwear industry has dramatically shrunk. The vast majority of shoes we buy are now made overseas.One town remains synonymous with shoemaking. Northampton. And it’s here that you can still find craftspeople making some of the finest shoes in the world. Brands like Crockett and Jones, Edward Green, Tricker’s and Joseph Cheaney & Sons are still selling their shoes to the world.In this special episode of The Factory Next Door, we head off on a tour of Northampton to ask a simple question:What can we do today, to ensure that in 10 years time Northampton’s historic shoe industry is growing again?We begin at last makers Springline, where director Michael chats to us about how we can help ourselves. He also shares a story that breaks my heart.Chris, founder of Crown Northampton shows us around his factory making the world’s finest trainer, as we consider overhauling the benefits of working in the industry.And then we pop in to visit a friend of the show, William Church from Cheaney to discuss the challenges facing the industry right now – and how to overcome them.  Say hello on Instagram @thefactorynextdoorThe Factory Next Door is supported by AVEVA, a leader in industrial intelligence. Sign up to their bi-weekly newsletter about manufacturing here:www.aveva.com/factory

Pitching a 24-metre-long tent is one thing. Manufacturing one requires a whole different set of skills, including cloth cutting, sewing, woodwork and a good understanding of mathematics.On this week’s The Factory Next Door we head to North Yorkshire to meet a team striving to keep alive the ancient art of tent making.Number 48 on our list of the greatest things we make here is The Wedding Tent by Wills Marquees.Co-founder Chris Brawn gives us a tour of their workshop as we learn about the beauty of light cutting through cotton, consider why tent-making is both easy and difficult, and ask whether nice people can succeed in business.Say hello on Instagram @thefactorynextdoorThe Factory Next Door is supported by AVEVA, a leader in industrial intelligence.Sign up to their bi-weekly newsletter about manufacturing here:www.aveva.com/factory

When the world’s best surgeons spread a rib cage or clamp a blood vessel, they rely on instruments hammered and filed by skilled hands in a Sheffield workshop. On this week’s The Factory Next Door we head to Platts & Nisbett, manufacturers of surgical instruments for almost half-a-century. Number 47 on our list of the greatest things we make here is The Surgical Clamp. Alyson Nisbett gives us a factory tour as we learn why machines can’t make these instruments, we consider the responsibility that comes with hand-crafting life-saving equipment, and we ponder where a five-inch nail goes in the body. Say hello on Instagram @thefactorynextdoor The Factory Next Door is supported by AVEVA, a leader in industrial intelligence.  Sign up to their bi-weekly newsletter about manufacturing here: www.aveva.com/factory

Smalls are a big market. Annual underwear sales in the UK top £400m. Much of it used to be made domestically (with a thriving cluster in south Wales), but, in the past 15 years, that industry has dramatically shrunk. Today, just a few artisan lingerie companies survive.On this week’s The Factory Next Door, we head to New Tredegar in South Wales to meet Naomi Edmondson, the founder of lingerie company Edge o’ Beyond.Number 46 on our list of the greatest products we make here is The Luxury Lingerie.Naomi gives us a tour of her factory as we chat about the challenges of keeping lingerie manufacturing alive in the Welsh valleys. Plus, we talk about the physical power of beautifully made underwear and being banned from social media.Say hello on Instagram @thefactorynextdoorThe Factory Next Door is supported by AVEVA, a leader in industrial intelligence.Sign up to their bi-weekly newsletter about manufacturing here:www.aveva.com/factory