The benefits of buying locally made products is one of Australia's most bipartisan beliefs. It unites Australians across the political spectrum, even though people's reasons for buying Australian Made may differ.
This year it’s the 40th year anniversary of the green and gold Australian Made logo. In line with this many Australian businesses are actively working to bring supply chains back onto Australian shores. But this process has to be a reciprocal one between brands and consumers.
The Economic Benefits of Buying Australian Made Products
This doesn’t mean Australians should pay more for Australian Made products, it just means shifting some of our budget away from imported products and towards ones made right here at home.
If we can bring more production onto Australian shores we can create more jobs for Australian people, lower our carbon footprint through minimising transport, and help boost the Australian economy. But to do this consumer and business owners have to work together and support each other in prioritising Australian manufacturing.
Are Australian Made Products More Expensive?
There’s an assumption that buying Australian Made products is more expensive than buying products manufactured overseas. But this doesn’t have to be the case.
By cutting out the transportation and handling costs between manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, as a business we’ve managed to subsidise the costs of Australian labour and produce a product at lower prices than most others in our market.
Why We Keep Our Manufacturing in Australia
Whilst keeping manufacturing on Australia shores seems like a nation-wide economic no brainer, the reasons we hold an Australian Made philosophy so dear goes so much further than this.
As a business that produces an Australian Made product the things we value the most are having the freedom to make changes to our product whenever we need to, responding to our own customers - in Australian and New Zealand - in real time.
It also gives us the ability to quality control to our own standard, not just accepting industry or market standards, but going above and beyond. At any time of day us (and our customers) can see what’s going into our products, chat with the people who are making them, and ensure the conditions they’re being made under are to our high ethical standard.
We have no intention of moving our products off shore. Not just for economic reasons, but because we really do love Australian Made products. We love having a warehouse here. It’s fun to tinker with complex processes and get good at recycling. We believe we can bring a great quality product at the same price, we just have to challenge our thinking to do so. It’s a beautiful constraint.
We’re grateful that there are enough people that agree with the sentiment that it holds a value, but we don’t expect people to pay a premium for it.
