UK manufacturing sector extends its global operations

Source: ICAEW

Research by the ICAEW has revealed the extent to which globalisation has impacted on UK companies. Of those companies surveyed, 77% were involved in markets or operations outside the UK. This percentage increases as the size of business increases.

The findings came from the latest ICAEW Enterprise Survey Report, which was conducted in the summer of this year.

Manufacturing and engineering sectors are more likely to have a global focus than others, with 90% having global operations of some sort – almost two-thirds ran part of their operations from overseas. Interestingly, companies with fewer than 1,000 employees were just as likely to outsource to post-2004 EU accession countries (11%) than they were to India (14%) or China (11%). The original 15 EU member states (53%) and the US (33%) account for the majority of overseas presence.

The types of foreign activity the companies are involved with is of interest (see graph), with supply of materials topping the list and ownership and top-level management coming next. IT and financing are also strongly represented, but just 8% of companies currently source internal accountancy functions from abroad – something they see doubling in the next five years.

The survey also found that 90% of businesses believe they can grow turnover in the next two years and 25% believing they can grow by more than 15%.

www.icaew.co.uk/enterprise