Glasgow entrepreneur Michelle Mone believes that manufacturing could make a real return to the British economy within the next decade.
The businesswoman best known for her Ultimo lingerie brand said that although it might take ten years, rising costs in textile production in China could ultimately lead to a revival of manufacturing in the UK.
"Lead times are getting longer, minimums - minimum quantities - are going up by almost double and prices are rising as well," Mone said. "So when you have longer lead times, higher minimums and higher prices it makes sense to bring it back here and I will love it when it comes back here.
"I've been slated in the past and asked 'why is she making it in China?' Well, the whole bloody world is making in China. Even Armani was making in China."
Mone, who now owns just 20 per cent of the Ultimo brand and is about to launch her new UTAN tanning products into 500 shops in the UK made the comments as part of a wide-ranging Herald Magazine interview to promote her new book My Fight to the Top.
Discussing the challenges women face in the business world she said it is often difficult for women because men are more clubbable. "I've had it all my life where banks haven't accepted me and they have their golf, their rugby, their football and we feel as women we're not included and that is hard.
However, she said, she was personally against positive discrimination in the boardroom. "I really believe it's a bad decision. The guy would be sitting there thinking 'you're only here because you're wearing a bra."
Mone who has appeared on reality TV shows Celebrity Masterchef and The Apprentice: You're Fired also said she believes women have a different style in business than men. My opinion is that we multi-task more, with kids and our careers and everything else. I would say we are more caring as well. Lord Sugar gets applauded for being a strong business guy. Being a strong businesswoman I would be called a bitch. And I always encourage women to help one another instead of being bitchy."
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