A Q&A with Stuart Weekes, National Head of Manufacturing at Crowe
Tell us about your career history, and its evolution to your current role
For the past 25 years, my career has focused on supporting innovation-driven companies across a range of sectors – including manufacturing and engineering – to achieve their goals while navigating the intricacies of taxation incentives and compliance.
I joined Crowe in 2007 and, in 2019, became Head of Innovation Taxes, advising companies on incentives such as R&D tax credits and the Patent Box regime. Most recently, I was appointed National Head of Manufacturing, a role that allows me to further champion the sector and the innovation that underpins its growth.
One of the exciting aspects of working with manufacturing and engineering businesses is the opportunity to spend time on factory floors. Understanding the pressures and challenges faced by manufacturing business owners and seeing first-hand how products are made is invaluable – not only for understanding the processes that drive a business, but also the opportunities where innovation can strengthen operations and enhance the products that ultimately reach the end of the production line.
How does Crowe work with manufacturing businesses?
Crowe UK has a long-standing history of supporting manufacturers, a sector that continues to be a cornerstone of our client base. We provide audit, tax, advisory, and consulting services, using deep industry in-sight to help businesses manage supply chain, workforce, and technological challenges, meet regulatory requirements, and identify opportunities for growth.
Over 15 years ago, my predecessor, Johnathan Dudley, established dedicated support for manufacturers, creating our Manufacturing Business Group and Network. Since then, we have continued to seek to be a voice for the sector, championing the key issues that manufacturing business owners face and bringing industry leaders together to connect and share insights.
Can you highlight some of the key findings from Crowe’s latest manufacturing outlook report?
UK manufacturing is showing resilience despite another challenging year marked by rising energy and employment costs, supply chain cyber risks and a deepening skills gap. Our latest Manufacturing Outlook re-port showed that 66 percent of businesses still expect to grow over the next 12 months, driven in part by increasing defense spending and a strong sense of sector-wide determination.
But challenges remain significant. Manufacturers are relying heavily on their own reserves to fund growth, with 82 percent using their own resources and internal reserves, reflecting caution in the lending environment and a desire for greater control. Uncertainty around the return on innovation investment is also holding back progress, with more than half (54 percent) citing it as a barrier to R&D.
Skills shortages, energy costs and the high price of green technologies continue to weigh on businesses, even as more than half take active steps toward Net Zero. Meanwhile, supply chain pressures – particularly cost volatility – are driving a major push toward reshoring.
Overall, the sector is cautiously optimistic, but the message is clear: unlocking UK manufacturing’s full potential will require stronger government backing, a renewed energy to push ahead with the Industrial Strategy and actions that make the UK a more competitive and attractive place to invest.
How can the UK get back to its golden age of manufacturing? Can this surge in the sector continue?
Recent data showing rising production and positive signs for future growth is encouraging, but there is much work to do to ensure this momentum is sustainable and the barriers to long-term growth are ad-dressed.
The manufacturing workforce is ageing, with the sector having one of the highest proportions of workers aged 50+. Securing the sector’s future will require greater investment in attracting, upskilling and retaining the next generation. Continued government support for training such as through apprenticeships will be vital to ensure that new talent can thrive.
Innovation is critical to growth and driving the sector forward. A stronger, more investor-friendly economic environment should help unlock external investment, enabling manufacturers to grow and compete glob-ally. When businesses feel confident to invest in innovation, then we will once more see the return of the sector to the forefront of the global economy.
Additionally, the government’s renewed commitment to increase defense, as part of its Industrial Strategy, presents significant opportunities for manufacturers of all sizes. However, realizing these opportunities will depend on overcoming challenges around collaboration between private, public and commercial partners. Understanding and removing the obstacles that hinder support for domestic suppliers will be vital.
Finally, international trade agreements remain crucial. Tariffs continue to present real barriers for manufacturers operating overseas, so breaking down these trade obstacles will be key to supporting growth and strengthening the UK’s global competitiveness.
Why does the UK need a specialized Manufacturing Minister?
Manufacturing is, in many ways, the backbone of the UK economy. Establishing a Minister for Manufacturing would give this vital sector, which employs a significant proportion of our workforce here in the UK, the dedicated voice it deserves at the highest levels of government.
Moving onto the impact of the Jaguar Land Rover cyber-attack across the manufacturing supply chain – what can the sector learn from the incident?
The JLR cyber-attack resulted in significant disruption across its entire supply chain, with businesses left grappling with lost work and constrained cashflow for several weeks. Many manufacturers – including SMEs – are likely to still be feeling the impact today, and the long-term effects are yet to play out.
The incident highlighted the speed at which security can turn into fragility, particularly when manufacturers in a supply chain are reliant on a single, large customer. It also underscored the vulnerability of supply chains, in some cases resembling a ‘house of cards’.
To build resilience, manufacturers need to stay nimble and able to pivot or diversify their operations in re-sponse to changing demand. Increasingly, a key measure of success will be how easily a business can switch and respond to market changes.
What does the future look like for the advanced manufacturing sector?
In a speech delivered at the March 2026 Make UK National Manufacturing Conference, Business Secretary Peter Kyle, spoke about three key pillars to the next generation of manufacturing: “Conception. Production. Utilisation”. In brief:
‘Conception’: embedding innovative technologies and AI at the design stage. To quote Peter Kyle, “the factory of the future begins not on the shop floor, but on a high-performance computer.”
‘Production’: championing next stage production, where new technologies and techniques are integrated to modernize factories and ensure the UK remains competitive on a global stage.
‘Utilisation’: strengthening how UK‑made solutions are sold globally, with products increasingly bundled with services.
For this to succeed from conception, there will need to be a focus on helping businesses, particularly SMEs, to access finance and funding to invest in innovation and advanced engineering, as well as upskilling the workforce so engineers can use AI as confidently as machinery. Policy and measures such as trade agreements and export finance will also be essential.
How are the UK’s Net Zero targets impacting the manufacturing sector?
Looking ahead, energy and access to strategic metals and minerals will be critical. Offshoring our emissions to countries with lower environmental standards undermines the UK manufacturing base without delivering real climate benefits. As many countries move toward “friend-shoring” to strengthen and stabilize their supply of key materials, there is an opportunity for the UK to do the same
As the UK transitions to cleaner, more environmentally friendly energy sources, manufacturers are trying to keep pace. While the transition to Net Zero remains a strategic priority for many manufacturers, cost remains a significant obstacle. Thirty-nine percent of respondents to our latest report identify the high cost of green technologies as their biggest challenge in reducing carbon emissions.
While clean energy can initially be more expensive for businesses, there are other long‑term benefits – including increased investment opportunities from customers focused on their own emissions, and greater operational flexibility in areas with local restrictions – that can make these energy sources attractive for businesses.
Are there any other areas that you consider important for the sector and that you’d like to include?
As part of the NATO agreement in December 2025, the UK Government has committed to increase defense and security related spending to five percent of GDP by 2035. This creates growth opportunities for manufacturers. To position themselves effectively, businesses should invest in innovation and ensure they can meet the evolving needs of the defense supply chain. Achieving a supply chain that is robust, resilient and agile will also require precise, sustained government intervention.
At the same time, building broader supply‑chain resilience remains essential. Risks are increasingly shaped by customs and trade complexity rather than logistics alone. Tariff uncertainty, shifting rules of origin and emerging carbon border taxes can quickly make sourcing decisions cost‑inefficient if regulatory impacts are not fully understood. As manufacturers consider reshoring or reconfiguring supply chains, they must adopt operating models that embed trade compliance into commercial decision‑making, rather than treating it as an operational afterthought.
Manufacturers face National Insurance contributions and minimum wage rises, volatile tariffs, high energy costs and persistent skills shortages. These pressures are driving the need for rapid innovation. To remain competitive, businesses will need to accelerate automation, reduce costs, review energy sources and waste, and explore diversification into sectors such as defense and energy, while prioritizing both skills retention and expansion.
These challenges are significant, but through collaboration and shared ambition, the resilience and ingenuity of manufacturers will continue to strengthen and sustain the sector for the future.
