The Key Challenges Behind Injection Moulding Reshoring // BEC Group Blog

Reshoring has become a regular part of what BEC Group do. Over the past fifteen years, the company has taken delivery of mould tools shipped back from China and the wider Far East, repaired and modified them, and put them straight into production here in New Milton.

The trend is industry-wide. A Make UK survey found 40% of manufacturers had reshored suppliers in the past year, with a similar number planning to do the same. The same questions come up with almost every project. Read on to find the answers to the questions BEC is asked most about bringing injection moulding back to the UK.

Why Are So Many Manufacturers Reshoring?

Offshoring made sense when the unit price was low enough to outweigh the other factors. That gap has narrowed, and the hidden costs are harder to ignore.

The reasons we hear most often:

• Long lead times with little flexibility for changes
• Shipping delays and costs have risen sharply since 2020
• Quality issues that are slow and expensive to fix at a distance
• Communication problems caused by time zones and language
• Minimum order quantities that tie up cash in stock

The experience tends to be positive; an industry survey found 90% of firms that had reshored reported a good outcome, and 82% planned to reshore more over the next two years.

Is UK Manufacturing Really More Expensive?

Once you look at the total cost rather than the unit price, reshored manufacturing begins to look very fair indeed. An offshore quote looks cheaper per part, but it omits a lot of the detail.

Add shipping, import duties, tooling delays, quality rejects, large minimum orders, and the time spent managing an overseas supplier, and the gap closes quickly. For many of the companies we work with, UK production is competitive and less risky.

There’s also the value of certainty. Knowing parts will arrive on time, being able to fix problems quickly, and having full visibility into your production all count for a good deal, even if they don’t appear in a price-per-part comparison.

How Long Does Reshoring Take?

It depends on whether you’re moving existing tools or building new ones. Moving tools is faster because the design work is already done.

Once tools arrive, they’re inspected, repaired or modified where needed, and trialled before full production. With design, tooling, and moulding on one site, sign-off is quick, and production can start soon after.

New tooling takes longer, as it has to be designed and cut from scratch, but the timescales are still usually shorter than offshore lead times.

What About Quality and Communication?

This is where UK manufacturing has a clear advantage.

You can visit the site, meet the engineers on your project, and check first-off samples in person. Problems are solved in a conversation rather than a long email chain that’s exhausting to manage. And with design, tooling, and moulding under one roof, accountability remains centralised rather than split across separate suppliers.

Can You Show This Working in Practice?

Guru Systems is a great example. Their smart meter technology helps optimise heat networks across the UK, and their first-generation Hub I meter was being made offshore. They’d run into extended lead times, communication problems, and material issues.

So they reshored the tooling to us. We took delivery of the Hub I mould tools from China, had our toolmakers repair and modify them, and manufactured the casings here in New Milton.

Guru visited the site while the tools were being trialled, quickly signed off on production, and regained the control and certainty they’d been missing.

Talk to BEC About Reshoring

We’ve been designing, tooling, and moulding in New Milton since 1978, with ISO 9001:2015 certification and Made in Britain accreditation.

We handle complex reshoring projects regularly, from moving and modifying existing tools to building new tooling from scratch.

If you’re considering bringing your injection moulding back to the UK, contact our team. We’ll review your tooling and requirements and tell you honestly whether we’re the right fit.

Click here to read the latest news from BEC Group.

BEC Group
+44 (0)1425 613131
Website
Email