Are the Office Supplies and Stationery in your Workplace, School, Club, and Home made in the UK? Plus British made fridge magnets

British made stationery.

Manufacturing in the UK allows companies to control supply, guarantee quality, offer flexibility and to be ethical and environmentally sound.

You and your company or organisation or club or school or university can support British companies and British jobs and be environmentally friendly (by reducing your carbon footprint through reducing the miles goods are transported) by buying British at home, at work and for school.

A good starting point is to buy only British made stationery (pens, pencils, staplers, paper clips, scissors, paper, files, etc.).  Don’t order stationery unless you know where it is made.  Refuse to buy cheap foreign made stationery.  Buy British stationery for your workplace and home and it will last longer and so save you or your company money long term.  Most stationery these days is foreign made but you can insists on buying British made stationery.  Just say 10 years ago most stationery was made in the UK, but sadly this is no longer the case.Most stationery these days is foreign made but you can insists on buying British made stationery.  Just say 10 years ago most stationery was made in the UK, but sadly this is no longer the case. We all know those cheap Chinese made staplers don’t last 5 minutes, whereas the old made in England stapler that has been floating around your office since who knows when is still going strong!  My old made in England Rexel stapler is superb quality; modern Chinese made Rexel staplers are very poor quality and do not last very long at all before they are broken.

An old made in Britain Rexel stapler. Still going strong after many many years. Photograpgh by author.

An old made in Britain Rexel stapler. Still going strong after many many years. Photograpgh by author. Base view 1.

An old made in Britain Rexel stapler. Still going strong after many many years. Photograpgh by author. Base view 2.

A vintage box of made in UK Rexel No.56 staples. Sadly Rexel / Acco staples are now foriegn made. Photograph by author.

BBC News – Inside the UK’s last carbon paper factory – York Haven Carbon Paper

BBC News – Inside the UK’s last carbon paper factory.

York Haven Ltd. make carbon paper in the West Midlands of England and are probably the last remaining manufacturer of one-time carbon paper in the UK. They make one-time carbon paper which is widely used for computer stationery. They also make pencil carbon which is used when multiple uses of the carbon are required such as in duplicate and triplicate books and backing/masking papers used in the heat transfer printing process in the textile industry. Please see the above video and article from the BBC.

Once the mainstay of offices carbon paper enabled people to make duplicates of documents and it was also used when making credit card payments, with the details being copied onto the paper that the vendor kept. We still talk about making a ‘carbon copy’ (cc) and despite it being less used than previously, it still has its uses and it is great to see a British firm still manufacturing carbon paper.

http://www.yorkhaven.co.uk