Press Release Summary = Protective Clothing & Equipment estimates that the total market for protective clothing and equipment, including workwear and industrial footwear, reached £823.2m at manufacturers\' selling prices (msp) in 2003, which represents an increase of 3% on the 2002 value
Press Release Body = Protective Clothing & Equipment
Protective Clothing & Equipment estimates that the total market for protective clothing and equipment, including workwear and industrial footwear, reached £823.2m at manufacturers\' selling prices (msp) in 2003, which represents an increase of 3% on the 2002 value.
The market includes textile workwear and protective clothing; head, face, hearing and eye protection; medical and industrial gloves; industrial footwear; respiratory protection and breathing apparatus; and other products, such as fall-arrest equipment, lifejackets and limited-life clothing. Much of this market comes under the heading of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), as defined by EU regulations, but some workwear, worn mainly for corporate identification, falls outside this scope.
Since employers are obliged by law to provide PPE where it is needed, purchases cannot be deferred and this gives the market some stability. The total market has demonstrated year-on-year growth throughout the review period (1999 to 2003). The downturn in the important heavy industry customer sectors is countered by the current buoyancy in the construction sector and a high level of demand from industries such as food manufacturing and transport service industries. Across most product sectors, imports from countries where manufacturing costs are lower than they are in the UK are substantial and competition from cheap imported products is keeping prices down.
The workwear and protective clothing sector showed continued value growth between 1999 and 2003, owing to increasing employment in some of the target industries, a growing emphasis on corporate image and continued product development. The closure of the UK\'s largest manufacturer of safety shoes in 2003 and the continued trend towards outsourcing of production overseas by other UK footwear companies, means that there remains little safety and occupational shoe manufacturing in the UK in 2004. The growth in relatively low-cost imports at the expense of locally produced footwear caused the value of this sector to fall in 2002 and 2003.
In other sectors, overall progress in market value was generally positive over the review period, partly as a result of a high level of product innovation. The industry continues to improve its product designs in terms of functionality, wearing comfort, ergonomics and styling.
It expects the total market to show continued steady growth in value terms between 2004 and 2008. However, a further fall in value is expected for the safety footwear sector in 2004, as the full impact of the loss of local footwear manufacturing operations is felt and more of the market comes from low-cost countries. New legislation on noise levels will help the hearing protection sector.
2025
