I've read this a lot but not really commented. Honesty in the industry is one thing that frustrates me. In my early days as a bat maker I dealt with a lot of people claiming to press, handle etc when in truth all they did was sand or sticker up. Does that make the product better or worse, not really but it does potentially give buyers a different view to what's actually happening. Handmade in England or a brand claiming to do everything is a selling point over a sticker up brand and that's why it's used. It annoys me because it's lying to customers and whilst it may not change every buyers mind if they found out the truth, it may change a few.
I seem to recall a topic regarding part mades/cnc'd bats seen in a video. Think it was the video of the guy who went to have a custom made. Cant remember exact details. When a brand becomes too big to fulfill its orders it needs to come up with other means to make the bats quicker, that can either be machine shaping or extra staff. The former is probably easier due to costs (depending on machine) and the lack of training time/issues. Does that make the bats any less appealing, again probably not. This could however explain the volume of bats produced by one man.
I am not here to pass judgement on what a brand does or doesn't do or how they run their business. I'm not going to be buying from them so it doesn't directly Impact on me but I can understand people's frustrations if they spend their hard earned cash on a hand made bat from a uk brand and get a import instead. You wouldn't like to find out your £300k Ferrari was produced in a fiat factory would you?