A survey of manufacturers by Subcon showed that over the past 18 months the pandemic had had a significant impact sourcing strategy.
Of the 81 companies surveyed nearly two-thirds said it had increased the need to protect supply chains and more than half said it had driven a move to more local and domestic sourcing.
Nearly a third said it had also supported increased collaboration between companies.
Over half of the companies polled said that they had been impacted negatively by the pandemic; 43% quite negatively and 10% very negatively. Budget cuts, job losses, customer disruption, chip shortages and supply chain issues were among the reasons cited.
On the upside, 17% of the 81 respondents claimed they were not impacted at all, and 23% actually profited from Covid, with 14% saying their business was impacted ‘quite positively’ and 9% ‘very positively’ thanks to increases in sales, sector growth including medical supplies, and the opportunity to pivot online. 22% said that they had not experienced andy trading losses. Of the rest, 38% thought that business would be back to normal within 12 months – but three percent thought it would never recover.