New York Times interviews Netherton Foundry
At the end of 2021, we were somewhat surprised, but pleased to be interviewed by and photographed for the New York Times. This gave us the opportunity to explain the differences to trade that we are now encountering and to reiterate our determination to keep flying the flag for Britain. We would like you to read the article in full and then read our thoughts at the bottom of this page.
About NYT reporter Eshe Nelson
Eshe Nelson is a business and economics reporter for The New York Times in London. Before joining The Times, she was a global economics and markets reporter for Quartz and a currency and bond markets reporter for Bloomberg News. In 2020, she completed the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism at Columbia University. Read more of her articles here.
Photographer Andrew Testa
Andrew was born in London, England in 1965. He began his photographic career in the early 1990s working as a freelance for the Guardian and Observer newspapers. Throughout the decade he documented the growing Environmental Protest and Animal Rights movements. In 1999 he shifted his attention to the Balkans covering the war in Kosovo. At the end of 1999 he moved to Kosovo, which he used as a base to cover events throughout Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. In 2005 he moved to New York where he was based for five years. He is a regular contributor to the New York Times and his work has been widely published in magazines such as Newsweek, Time, Stern, Geo, Paris Match, Der Spiegel, The Sunday Times Magazine, The Independent Magazine, Mother Jones, Mare and Granta. See more of his photos here.
Netherton Foundry: Our thoughts as an exporter.
Someone recently suggested to us that, " now we've left the EU, you don't have to export to them anymore ! "
Well let's unpack this idea. Nobody ever made us export, we just thought it was a great idea and to make some money for Netherton Foundry and the UK. Somehow we thought that unless you wanted a life without imported mobile phones, coffee, oranges or anything else we don't readily make or grow on these islands, it might be useful to earn money from overseas?
As a nation we have been sending our manufactured goods around the world since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, when, during the first half of the 19th century, Britain became one of the premier economies in Europe and the most prominent industrial power in the world economy. Our industrialists were major innovators in machinery such as steam engines, textile equipment and tool-making and our businessmen were leaders in international commerce.
Drawing our inspiration from the pioneers of the Industrial Revolution, Netherton Foundry has been happy to continue this long tradition of manufacturing and export.
We believe that it is important to give a good impression of our country overseas and do our small part to re-balance the trade deficit – we are part of a global economy and all those imported luxury cars have to be paid for!
Whilst the powers in Westminster are surprised to see that the UK's export trade to the EU plummeted during 2021, we're not. Our elected representatives seem to think that the trading structures that existed when we entered the European single market would still exist today. But the network of importers, wholesalers and stockists for UK products sold in Europe no longer exist and there is no appetite to rebuild them. The world has moved on and our politicians seem stuck with a 1970's view of international trade.
Consumers and high street retailers around the world have become used to buying as close to the source as possible. This is true whether you are purchasing a Tesla or a Netherton Foundry frying pan. This isn’t politics, it's business. Being part of the Europe Union eased the way for many small businesses to enter an enormous trading market, tariff free and essentially with very little hassle. Large multinationals will be NOW able to benefit from Britain’s new lack of competence in Europe.
We regard it as a patriotic duty to export. However anyone who’s ever exported, or even thought about exporting, knows it’s not easy, it has never been easy and it's just got a whole lot harder. But as we said, we are inspired by past masters of revolution, so we will forge a way through the commercial revolution and upheaval occasioned by Brexit. It wasn’t our choice or our decision, but we will overcome the obstacles we are now facing and continue the tradition of exporting British made goods all around the world.
6th January 2022
