Leicester Made gears up for expanded edition amid efforts to rewrite the city's manufacturing reputation

Leicester Made is gearing up for a new edition this year under an expanded banner: Leicester Made & Regions. The shift is reflective of a broader movement underway across the UK, as manufacturing hubs in Manchester, Scotland and London seek to align under a shared push for domestic production.

What was once a city-specific showcase is now evolving into a national platform for UK sourcing amid a renewed interest in nearshoring and supply chain resilience. While brands have gradually re-engaged with domestic manufacturing since the disruption of Covid-19, recent geopolitical instability has accelerated decision-making.

“We were seeing engagement from brands,” Jenny Holloway, CEO of Fashion Enter and chair of the Apparel and Textile Manufacturers Federation (ATMF), told FashionUnited. “But there wasn’t a flurry of activity. Then suddenly…we had a surge of calls. Not just emails, calls asking about test and repeat models, about moving sourcing back to the UK.”

This latest spike, Holloway notes, followed escalating tensions in the Middle East, mirroring previous moments where rising oil prices or global uncertainty prompted brands to reconsider offshore production, but “not like this”.

As brands increasingly look closer to home for their production, the challenges facing domestic manufacturers has been a growing discussion point in the political and business landscape. A persistent narrative surrounding UK manufacturing is the so-called skills gap–according to Oxford Learning College, an estimated 20 percent of the workforce is projected to be underskilled for their jobs by 2030.

In Leicester, however, industry leaders argue the opposite is true. “What I’ve noticed about Leicester is that there actually is a ‘waiting-skilled’ workforce,” Holloway noted. In 2017, Leicester’s garment sector comprised around 1,500 factories employing 1,500 of workers, yet today hundreds of experienced machinists remain either unemployed or out of work.

For suppliers, the issue is therefore not capability but consistency of demand. “The factories need commitment to orders,” Holloway stressed. “That stability, whether it’s from the NHS or the military, is what allows them to plan, invest and retain workers.” This suggests a structural imbalance within UK sourcing, as brands continue to prioritise unit costs instead of long-term order pipelines, undermining the capacity they may later need to rely on.

The ATMF has already been actively involved in advocacy, backing initiatives like a recent parliamentary debate on reshoring production back to the UK. Since Holloway took the chair officially in August 2025, there has been a broadening viewpoint that has expanded ATMF beyond its prior sole focus on supporting garment workers, to now also backing factories to ensure job security.

Public procurement presents opportunity

One of the most significant opportunities for rebuilding UK manufacturing lies in public sector sourcing. The UK’s Public Procurement Act, which came into force February 2025, explicitly promotes local production, SME participation and social value. Yet Holloway notes that barriers still remain. “The contracts tend to be multi-million pounds. What small factory can compete with that?”

In response, the ATMF is facilitating a new limited liability partnership, bringing together 20 factories to collectively bid for large-scale contracts. The group has already submitted the first round of tendering for a 60 million pound UK public contract.

“Why are we making thousands of uniforms that sit in warehouses and get destroyed after five years?”

The stakes extend beyond economics, however, with inconsistencies still prevalent in current procurement practices, particularly in defence sourcing. “We believe military uniforms are being made in China, using fabric that’s actually produced in the UK and shipped out,” Holloway said. “But no one factors in the real costs of logistics, security risks, or waste.”

Holloway also highlighted inefficiencies in overproduction and stockpiling. “Why are we making thousands of uniforms that sit in warehouses and get destroyed after five years? Why not make them closer to demand?”

Rewriting Leicester’s reputation

For Leicester manufacturers, public procurement serves not just as a revenue stream, but a pathway to long-term industrial stability. To achieve this, however, the city’s reputation must also be strengthened.

Leicester’s garment sector has spent much of the past decade under scrutiny, following high-profile investigations into labour conditions. Allegations of underpayment, exploitation, money laundering and poor working environments have cast a shadow over the city’s manufacturing base. The launch of Operation Tacit in 2020 further intensified that scrutiny, bringing together multiple enforcement agencies to investigate claims of malpractice.

More recent findings have challenged the scale of these claims, however. A 2025 report by the UK’s director of labour market enforcement, Margaret Beels, concluded that while non-compliance did exist, its severity had been overstated and was not disproportionate compared to other sectors.

Having credited Beels’ report for exonerating Leicester, Holloway was also clear-cut in her perspective. “I would not chair the ATMF if I thought those claims were accurate,” she said. “They were exaggerated, and incredibly damaging to the livelihoods of factories and workers.”

“It feels as though large retailers have closed their ears to the bite of the machines,”

Holloway argued that the narrative has had lasting commercial consequences, deterring brands from engaging with Leicester and ignoring its capabilities, even as conditions improved. “It feels as though large retailers have closed their ears to the bite of the machines,” she added, a reference to the hum of factory production. “They should be re-looking at the vibrancy of Leicester and bringing production back.”

A new generation and capabilities beyond fast fashion

Another persistent misconception is that Leicester is limited to low-cost, fast fashion production, primarily jersey garments produced on overlock machines. In reality, however, manufacturers in the region possess a far broader skill set. “There’s an assumption Leicester can only manufacture fast fashion,” Holloway said. “But factories are producing woven garments and complex constructions. Scrubs during Covid are just one example of woven production.”

Fashion Enter’s training programmes intend to reinforce this capability. Through its Fashion Technology Academy, the organisation delivers Level 2 to Level 4 training in garment construction, including advanced techniques, such as French seams and double-turned hems. “These are highly skilled jobs,” Holloway emphasised. “All they need is repetition and consistent orders to build momentum.”

Attracting younger workers to engage with these techniques also remains a critical challenge, yet opportunities are emerging. Rather than traditional production roles, many younger entrants are drawn to repair, upcycling and circular fashion. “The younger generation is often appalled by fast fashion,” Holloway explained. “They’re interested in repurposing garments, in reducing waste.”

This shift is reshaping how training and recruitment are approached. Once engaged, many workers transition from creative repair into broader manufacturing roles. “We call them ‘universal workers’ now. They’re trained across multiple machines, which makes the work more varied and more fulfilling,” Holloway explained.

Building trust through transparency

Central to Leicester’s repositioning is a renewed focus on transparency and accountability. Through the Garment and Textile Workers Trust, initially funded through industry contributions, efforts have evolved from worker support to broader factory sustainability.

A key development is the development of a new digital platform designed to give brands deeper visibility into supplier operations. The website will also include a “trusted trader” system and an accompanying emblem for participating factories. “We want to move beyond certifications,” Holloway said. “Brands will be able to see recent orders and how they were processed. That’s real transparency.”

Alongside this, ATMF is introducing unannounced compliance-friendly visits, led by director TJ Hussain. “Audit systems are often just snapshots. TJ will act as a ‘critical friend’, supporting factories to improve, rather than penalising them,” Holloway added.

“The capability is here. The workforce is here. What we need now is commitment,”

For Leicester, and for UK manufacturing as a whole, the convergence of geopolitical uncertainty, policy shifts and changing consumer expectations presents a rare window of opportunity. There are early signs of cohesion within the industry, as local collaboration increases, aligning manufacturers, trade bodies and educators more closely. “We’ve never had this level of cohesion before,” Holloway said. “Bringing 20 factories together to bid collectively is new.”

Yet the success of this “Leicester Renaissance” ultimately depends on one factor: whether brands are willing to act. “The capability is here. The workforce is here. What we need now is commitment,” Holloway stated.

About Leicester Made & Regions 2026

All this will be addressed during the upcoming Leicester Made & Regions trade show, taking place April 24 at The Venue De Montfort University. Over the day, players across the industry will come together to back the shared mission of strengthening UK supply chains and accelerating the shift to sustainable, onshore, and technology-driven fashion production.

Alongside an exhibition floor housing manufacturers, textile suppliers, and other production partners, a line-up of industry experts will take to the stage to lead discussions and share insights on critical topics such as embedding innovation, evolving legislation, and the push for sustainability. Among the speakers are N Brown Group sustainability manager, Joseph Mountain; Mintel’s associate principal fashion retail research, Tamara Sender Ceron; and Source Fashion director, Suzanne Ellingham.