Spend a day in any major city from Seoul to San Francisco and you’ll spot them weaving through the traffic – a bicycle with distinctive small wheels and arched top tube.

Brompton’s folding bike is an example of a great British design that’s loved around the world. More than 1.2m have now been sold.

Number 49 on our list of the greatest things we make here is The Folding Bicycle.

On this week’s The Factory Next Door we head to Greenford in West London to meet the team making these beautiful bikes.

CEO Will Butler-Adams OBE explains why they are an engineering company that makes bicycles, not the other way around. We go for a quick ride, see bikes being beaten up, and learn why manufacturing in London is integral to Brompton’s future.

Plus, we chat about what success looks like, learn where the name ‘Brompton’ came from, consider truck-driving in clogs, and explore how businesses can help drive positive change.

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The Factory Next Door is supported by AVEVA, a leader in industrial intelligence.

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Over the past 20 years, the amount we spend on shoes in the UK has tripled. It now stands at £14bn.

During the same period, our domestic footwear industry has dramatically shrunk. The vast majority of shoes we buy are now made overseas.

One town remains synonymous with shoemaking. Northampton. And it’s here that you can still find craftspeople making some of the finest shoes in the world. Brands like Crockett and Jones, Edward Green, Tricker’s and Joseph Cheaney & Sons are still selling their shoes to the world.

In this special episode of The Factory Next Door, we head off on a tour of Northampton to ask a simple question:

What can we do today, to ensure that in 10 years time Northampton’s historic shoe industry is growing again?

We begin at last makers Springline, where director Michael chats to us about how we can help ourselves. He also shares a story that breaks my heart.

Chris, founder of Crown Northampton shows us around his factory making the world’s finest trainer, as we consider overhauling the benefits of working in the industry.

And then we pop in to visit a friend of the show, William Church from Cheaney to discuss the challenges facing the industry right now – and how to overcome them.

Say hello on Instagram @thefactorynextdoor

The Factory Next Door is supported by AVEVA, a leader in industrial intelligence.

Sign up to their bi-weekly newsletter about manufacturing here:

www.aveva.com/factory

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pitching a 24-metre-long tent is one thing. Manufacturing one requires a whole different set of skills, including cloth cutting, sewing, woodwork and a good understanding of mathematics.

On this week’s The Factory Next Door we head to North Yorkshire to meet a team striving to keep alive the ancient art of tent making.

Number 48 on our list of the greatest things we make here is The Wedding Tent by Wills Marquees.

Co-founder Chris Brawn gives us a tour of their workshop as we learn about the beauty of light cutting through cotton, consider why tent-making is both easy and difficult, and ask whether nice people can succeed in business.

Say hello on Instagram @thefactorynextdoor

The Factory Next Door is supported by AVEVA, a leader in industrial intelligence.

Sign up to their bi-weekly newsletter about manufacturing here:

www.aveva.com/factory

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.