"WHY-NOT?" EXHIBITION.
QUALITY OF BRITISH GOODS. RETAILERS' NOVEL SHOW. London had a novel exhibition on show in the West End during October, sponsored by the Prime Minister and financially assisted by the Government. It consisted entirely of foreign manufactures, and was assembled by the Incorporated Association of Retail Distributors. And its purpose was to discover why and in what respects foreign manufacturers beat their British competitors.
Price, apparently, is not always the deciding factor. In many cases the foreign goods are superior, and are bought in Britain, despite their expense, because of their artistic design or ingenious pattern. Swedish glass, for instance (a very young industry so far as export is concerned), commands the market through superiority of design. German toys, specially designed for the English market, afford another instance. Carpets make yet one more, the yarn 6 for their manufacture being exported from Britain to France and returned to England manufactured into "Axminsters." France, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Holland, even Madeira, are sending cotton tea and tray-cloths to England, which in colour and design surpass those of Lancashire. British manufacturers are often accused abroad of a failure to study the market and the demand, an accusation to which the disclosures of this exhibition give point. But that they have been unable to maintain their hold on the home market, even when the imported product is more expensive, will come as a surprise to many. "Why," asks the "Daily Telegraph," "do we fail in one case and succeed with perfect ease in another?" And why cannot the British manufacturer, mechanically and inventively every bit as skilled as his competitors, produce a competitive article? These are the questions raised by this "challenge" to tho British manufacturer, 60 timely arranged in a period of crisis when the nation is more anxious than ever to buy British and exclude the foreigner.
"WHY-NOT?" EXHIBITION.
Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 78, 2 April 1932, Page 11
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