UK manufacturers' sales by product: 2023

• The total value of UK manufacturers' product sales was £456.1 billion in 2023, an increase of £17.2 billion (3.9%) from £438.9 billion in 2022.

• The manufacture of food remained the largest division and represented 20.8% of total manufacturers' sales in 2023.

• The manufacturing of motor vehicles division showed the largest value increase, up by £9.6 billion (22.0%) in 2023 to £53.3 billion; motor vehicles with a spark ignition internal combustion engine (above 1,500 cubic centimetres) saw the largest value increase for any single product in 2023, rising by £4.0 billion (23.4%) to £21.2 billion.

• Other selected products showing notable increases were soft drinks, which increased by £696 million (12.4%) to £6.3 billion, and fresh or chilled cuts of beef and veal, up by £468 million (9.8%) to £5.3 billion.

• Customers having less disposable income to spend on non-essential items because of the increasing cost of living was a common reason provided for declining sales, alongside higher production and operational costs.

Data collection and sources

ProdCom estimates are based on a sample of businesses surveyed annually. Data are collected from approximately 21,500 businesses, covering 240 subsectors of the mining, quarrying and manufacturing industry sectors, and including approximately 3,800 products.

All figures quoted are in current prices, and therefore do not take account of inflation.

It is sometimes necessary to suppress figures for certain products to avoid disclosing information about an individual business. Our ProdCom technical report (PDF, 1.8MB) describes the methods used to safeguard the information provided in confidence to us. Our commentary must also avoid disclosing information about individual businesses.

For Division 19 (coke and refined petroleum products), only one product (pitch and pitch coke, obtained from coal tar or from other mineral tars) is included. This product is located in one industry (19100: the manufacture of coke oven products) and there have been no businesses specifically classified to this industry in the ProdCom publication since 2015.

For Division 24 (the manufacture of basic metals), estimates for the manufacture of basic iron and steel, and of ferro-alloys, are not included in the overall UK ProdCom sales figures or in the divisional total, as these relate to an administrative source that is disclosive. Because of disclosure issues, we have combined Divisions 11 and 12 (beverages and tobacco) to allow for estimates at this level of aggregation to be made available.

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in January 2014. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled "accredited official statistics".

Quality and methodology

The ProdCom survey methodology is outlined in our ProdCom Quality and Methodology Information report and in the ProdCom technical report. Standard errors are available for most products, to inform users of the precision of the estimates. The 2023 estimates are based on a response rate of 79.7%.

Datasets

In this release the datasets are presented in a new format designed to meet accessibility criteria and to be machine readable. We would welcome any feedback you may have on this new layout that could help to enhance the user experience in future editions of this release.