As Director-General of Make UK Defence, Andrew Kinniburgh leads a member-owned trade association organisation that is championing and supporting the UK’s diverse defence supply chain.
And with defence spending set to ramp up – and more SMEs diversifying into the sector – Make UK Defence is playing a crucial role in connecting Primes with suppliers, building an interface between business and the Ministry of Defence, and representing manufacturers at Westminster and Whitehall.
We caught up with Andrew at the DPRTE defence procurement expo and conference in Farnborough to discuss the latest developments in the defence supply chain landscape… and how Make UK Defence is stepping up to the challenge.
There has been a much-publicised delay in the UK Government’s launch of the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) – and you recently spoke at the Defence Select Committee to make the case for publishing it as soon as possible. Why is this so important?
The impact of the DIP delay is being felt right through the supply chain, from the very largest businesses right down to the smallest. Thousands of SMEs can see business over the horizon, but they’re simply not seeing new programmes coming through. The Primes all have funds to invest because they can see defence spending increasing, but at the moment, their investment decisions are being impacted by that lack of a DIP. The mid-tiers are caught in the middle. It’s a perfect storm. This is why we desperately need to see the DIP published, or an alternative to it.
High energy costs are also on your radar…
High energy costs are crippling manufacturing in the UK, including defence manufacturing, especially with regard to the higher energy users, such as heat treatment and plating companies. We’re actually seeing some of them go out of business.
And the problem with that is it ripples back up the supply chain, into the Primes, who then lose UK-based plating and heat treatment capabilities for the kit they’re producing for defence programmes. That chips away at that UK sovereign capability. High energy costs also makes us uncompetitive internationally, which is a big problem.
Make UK Defence recently launched A Practical Guide to Working in Defence, in partnership with Lloyds, a resource designed to support SMEs looking to enter, grow, and succeed within the defence supply chain. Tell us more about that…
We’re a very ‘sleeves rolled up’ organisation at Make UK Defence and we want to help our members in practical ways. This document is an example of how we help our members connect with each other, larger companies and the MOD, understand the market better, and present themselves as stronger defence suppliers.
We are really proud of A Practical Guide to Working in Defence and the fact that a high street bank such as Lloyds has been willing support it is very encouraging.
Make UK Defence now has more than 900 members. How is the organisation stepping up to meet the increasing demand for your support?
We’re seeing incredible engagement from the buyers – the Primes and the mid-tiers. For instance, at this year’s DPRTE we ran the Meet The Buyer event: we had 63 buyers there and brokered more than 1000 meetings. At our Make UK Defence Summit this November we’ll probably be close to brokering 2000 Meet The Buyer meetings in one day.
Our Fit For Defence programme is another example of how we’re offering practical assistance. Through a range of partners, we’re helping companies that are new to defence and want to move into the market and get themselves ‘match fit’, and we’re also helping more experienced companies to improve performance and find new ways of winning new business.
We’re also committed to continuous improvement. For instance, after every single event we look at what lessons can be learned and what we could do better and improve on.
And in response to the higher membership numbers, we’ve grown the team. We’re adding to the team of highly experienced membership managers we have across the UK, and we also recently recruited two new apprentices, who can develop their careers with us.
What does the rest of 2026 look like for Make UK Defence?
We’re involved in around 50 events this year. For example, we are partnering with the Defence Procurement Conference 2026 in Birmingham in June, and we’ll have a members exhibition area at DVD2026 at UTAC Millbrook in September.
The Make UK Defence Summit will take place in November at The British Motor Museum in Warwickshire. It’s out largest event of the year and there’ll be hundreds of delegates there to network with… and potentially win business from.
If a business is looking at entering the defence sector, what advice would you give them… and why should they join Make UK Defence?
There will be more money flowing in defence, there’s absolutely no question about that. The only question is when. So if you need an organisation that can educate you about where you sit in the supply chain, and what you need to do to be ready to engage, there’s no better organisation than ourselves to help you do that.
But our ‘health warning’ would be that you need to go into this with your eyes open. You need to be patient. You can’t expect to win business overnight. You’ve got to really persevere and network your socks off.
You also need to think very carefully where you are. What are your unique selling points? Why are you different to other similar firms in the UK? What are you delivering that’s new to the market? If you think you’re ready to do that, then talk to us, we can help you.
For more information on Make UK Defence, visit makeuk.org/defence