Designed & manufactured in the UK

In the food industry there is a major push to buy “Local”. This movement, as well as cutting carbon footprints, helps pump the pound back into the UK economy. This patriotic movement has bought to light that the UK produces top quality products and you don’t have to go much further than your doorstep to find them.

Can the same patriotism that has led the masses to buy British pork convince the British furniture industry that they might sell some more tables if they make their product in the UK rather than abroad? With British design being so strong it seems a bit of a shame that we ship our manufacture off-shore to reduce the price rather than designing for UK industries.

Simon Andrews, designer of the Wrap table

Here at Pli we are making the most of the British manufacturing industry that has kept the majority of this country in pocket over the generations. We find we can build better relationships with UK manufacturers quite simply because we can easily visit them at the factory or call them up on the phone. This opens a whole new world of knowledge that can only be learned from years of manufacturing experience. Then, working together, we can optimise designs quicker and for less money than if we went further abroad.

The Wrap table is a great example of this successful approach. From our first meeting with Simon Andrews, designer of the Wrap table, in January 2008 he was able to develop this table in his free-time in under a year. This was mainly in part due to Simon’s great relationship with the sheet steel manufacturer of the surface parts. Ideas and tooling innovations were able to be shared quickly between all the parties so when problems came up it was a quick visit or a short phone call before a solution had been developed. Along with a shortening of the development time, it allowed Wrap to be made available at a competitive price rather than having a high “designer” price tag.

We thank Simon for all the work he has done on the Wrap project and we are proud to say the Wrap table is designed and made in the UK.