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UK Printed Mugs
24-10-2015, 10:03 AM
We would be interested to hear from other members who sell to their local retailers and whether you put "Printed in Dorset" say or "Made in Dorset"? We understand legally we can use "Made in" but does this ever cause questions from retailers or customers regarding whether substrate was "made" locally as opposed to the printed gift "made" locally? Thank you. Olly

pisquee
24-10-2015, 11:59 AM
We suuply approx 150 shops around the UK (and some abroad) One of our USPs is that everything is made in our own factory in the UK. This is used in our marketing, and products are printed or labelled as "proudly made in England." We do a lot more products than just printing our designs onto mugs though, and have a lot of products made from rolls of fabric we print for homewares/furnishings, and fashion. We're launching a wallpapers range at Top Drawer in January, and although this will be one of few things we outsource will still be UK made.

Quinsfan
24-10-2015, 07:52 PM
Pisquee
You have said in previous posts your mugs come in from elsewhere around the world. How does this work for your " proudly made in England"? I am not bothered either way but where does the England part start and finish with manufactured products.

UK Printed Mugs
24-10-2015, 09:03 PM
As far as we are legally aware then due to the UK being very grey in this area then as long as the final part of the production process is done in the UK then you can say "Made in Britain". What you are making is a printed product and of course a blank substrate is not printed hence it needs a process to "make" it. My initial question was really to do with follow up questions from retailers and customers. Currently our gifts go out without labels but about to push a new line of products which we want to label. If no one ever asks about the origin of the substrate then we will use "Made" rather than "Printed". Kind regards, Olly.

pisquee
24-10-2015, 10:14 PM
To us the ceramic is a raw material, just like our inks from Korea, or rolls of fabric from Turkey, only once the product is made into its final form and packaged is the making complete.

pisquee
24-10-2015, 11:49 PM
... for some of the companies we supply we have to provide (or provide through) we need to complete an eco-statement, including things like supply chain details. This is also the case for some of the trade shows we exhibit at.
Most companies are happy with us saying that we make everything in ouur own factory, others drill deeper asking where the blank mugs come from, and most seem happy with the explanation.

I said above our rolls of fabric are made in Turkey, but the polyester fibre comes from India, we then print on it with inks from South Korea with a printer from Japan and cut/sew it into different products on machines made in UK, USA & China.

We source from a worldwide market, so the only logical definition of where a product is made is where the product is finally assembled/finished/printed/packaged and the most significant value added - once finished, the product is worth considerably more than the raw materials alone.

Quinsfan
25-10-2015, 08:21 AM
That makes sense and in this day and age if someone wanted a fully "Made in England" it would be nigh on impossible or very expensive.
Thank you for your explanation Pisquee.

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UK Printed Mugs
25-10-2015, 08:44 PM
Yes Pisquee, thank you for taking time to respond. I know things may change in the future (EU talks from 2013 say largest part of product should dictate where it was made) but for now we shall go with "Made". Kind regards, Olly.