Manufacturing ‘boom’ claims met with caution

Claims that UK manufacturing is booming again have been met with caution by Wilmat’s Managing Director.
Teresa Hands says it’s true that the past six months or so has seen a significant improvement in the sector, but full recovery is still a long way off.
Although we’ve seen very healthy sales over the year so far, business varies from month to month. This is true for several other businesses we’ve spoken to in recent weeks.
Teresa was commenting on the latest Markit/CIPS purchasing managers index (PMI), released this week, which shows the sector enjoying its strongest growth in activity for two and a half years. It also revealed output and new orders rose at their fastest rate for 19 years.
The figures have prompted some commentators to suggest business is booming but the figures need to be taken in context says Teresa.
We are coming out of a very long and very deep recession, and businesses can’t afford to take anything for granted. Firms still need to work as hard as ever to retain customers and win new business.