What More UK: Why we try to buy local and sell global

Through buying locally wherever it can and selling globally, What More manages to support the business community at home, while simultaneously putting its products in to promising growth markets overseas.

What More UK is a Great British success story. The company has managed to grow its sales year on year.

What More UK is the market and brand leader in the housewares sector. It’s the organisation that owns the very popular housewares brand Wham. Its products are available in all the major supermarkets in the UK and a further 1,600 independent retailers up and down the country.

“A business that grows its share of a mature market survives. One that grows its share in a growing market thrives. That’s the thinking that led us to look globally for new customers,” says company Director Tony Grimshaw OBE.

The size of the UK housewares market is thought to be around £13.5bn, a figure that has remained fairly stable for the past 10 years.

The driver behind What More’s growth then is not so much at home in the UK, but overseas. Here is a company setting a great example to the business world. What More buys materials as locally as possible, and then exports finished products all over the world, 75 different countries to be precise.

Purchasing Manager Sue Beavis says: “We can’t always buy from within the UK, but where we can we do. This purchasing strategy gives us a more flexible supply chain.

“We can get certain materials quicker if they come from within the UK, close to the factory gate. We don’t have to worry so much about delays. That means our customers don’t have to worry about delays either.”

What More’s various bakeware lines, which have been so popular during lockdown are a great example. The steel comes from Port Talbot, it’s then coated in the midlands, and finally pressed in Altham.

Manufacturing companies are well known for having complex supply chains. What More has built a competitive advantage by reducing that complexity.

On top of that, it’s great for the country as a whole. Selling products overseas brings foreign money into the British economy. When it gets here, buying locally keeps it here.

What More UK manufactures housewares of all kinds. Its products range from bakeware to around-the-sink items, to home storage. It produces items for the DIY sector, the home office, laundry and even planters and troughs for the garden. All its products proudly display the Made in Britain logo.

It is a zero to landfill company and its award-winning Wham Upcycled range is made from 95 per cent recycled single use plastics.

For more information about What More UK visit www.whatmoreuk.co.uk