The Manufacturing Assembly Network (MAN), which comprises seven sub-contract manufacturers and an engineering design agency, has delivered its own blueprint for making the country globally competitive.

James Lister & Sons, with bases in Telford, Smethwick and Brierley Hill, plus Alucast, PP Control & Automation, Muller Holdings and KimberMills International, all with a presence in the Black Country, are all involved in the MANifesto, alongside Brandauer, Grove Design and Nemco.

Bosses believe Investment, People, International Trade and Sustainability and Net Zero should form the overarching approach and will form the guiding principles for the individual businesses inside the collective.

They are calling on the powers in Whitehall to do their bit to facilitate growth by providing tailored support and in removing some of the bureaucratic barriers currently in place.

Peter Davies, CEO of James Lister & Sons and co-chair of MAN Group, said: “This isn’t eight manufacturers coming out with a begging bowl for Government to fill, in fact it’s the opposite.

“We believe the MANifesto outlines clear, short and long-term objectives and many of these we can achieve on our own. We’re just asking for a level playing field to compete on and some simple enablers to ensure our competitiveness.

“In fact, we’d love nothing more than ministers to get in touch and work with us on developing some of our pillars into something more sustainable for industry as a whole.”

Austin Owens, founder of Grove Design and co-chair of MAN, said: “UK manufacturing has come through Brexit and Covid-19 in remarkably good shape, but this is more to do with our innovation, our technical expertise and our quality than it has to do with a clear industrial strategy.

“We got tired of waiting for Government to develop a vision like they benefit from in other countries, so decided to create our own MANifesto that will guide the future development of the eight firms and, in our opinion, the sector as a whole.”

The Manufacturing Assembly Network works together to encourage collaboration, best practice sharing and to promote UK manufacturing.

Collectively, the group boasts annual sales in excess of £95 million, employs more than 1000 people and exports products to over 50 countries from its 20-plus factories.