WEEKLY DIGEST

A fashion revival made in England, focussing on Albam (Bloomberg Businessweek)

Paola Antonelli on handmade design, including Wedgwood: an informative article, worth reading (Domus)

Details on an event celebrating the 'Best of Britannia' this autumn in London (Event)

A handful of positive stories on manufacturing in Scotland (Scotsman)

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Photo by Tina Cheng for Bloomberg Businessweek

WEEKLY DIGEST

Interview with Frank Naish, an award winning cider maker from Somerset (Intelligent Life)

A short interview with Julie Deane, founder of the Cambridge Satchel Company (mydaily)

Alice Rawsthorn on the new London bus, design nostalgia and the industrial revolution (NYT)

Rolls-Royce boss believes Britain needs more manufacturing heroes (Telegraph)

Niche products and the modern face of British manufacturing (FT)

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Photo of Frank Naish by Nick Ballon, from Intelligent Life

WEEKLY DIGEST

Stoke's potteries have a place in our recovery (Tristam Hunt)

An extract from 'The Busy Hives Around Us' (Esoteric London)

Thornbridge Brewery launches beer to help save Sheffield's Portland Works (SIBA)

Robin Wood's response to the recent UK culture posters: Craft is Great Britain (Robin Wood)

Design Council's 'Designing Demand' offers aid to small to medium manufacturers (Design Council)

AN INTERVIEW WITH NICHOLAS BROOKE OF SUNSPEL (PART TWO)

Sunspel and What it Stands For

“We think of ourselves as two things. Number one: The British jersey experts. We have developed, over the last 150 years, a number of fabrics that are unique. We are innovators in fabric development. Number two: We are manufacturers - cut and sew manufacturers in England. That is pretty rare. We're probably the last brand that manufactures cut and sew products in the UK from our own factory. There are other brands that dabble with making in the UK but they don't own the factories. The factory is not the core of the business.

When we grow the range we focus on those two things - is it a jersey and is it a cut and sew product? We do make certain items abroad, our boxer shorts for instance, but we have maintained the core here. I think a lot of other brands made a mistake in shifting all of their production abroad.”

The Creative Director

“He (J.W Anderson) loves our product. He is fundamentally a product guy at heart. He knows that what he does is about fashion but he knows that when he comes here and works with us we keep it simple. A lot of the stuff that he produces for menswear is made in the UK so there is a good synergy.”


Sunspel Mens and Sunspel Boxer

"When Peter Hill came back to run the business after the war, his elder brother was still living in Europe and he was a journalist. He then came back 5/6 years later. Then they fell out. So they decided to split the business between Sunspel Menswear and Sunspel Boxer. Peter, the guy we bought from, kept menswear and John had boxer.

Then, in the 80s, when the Levi's ad came out Boxer did really well. Because everybody started doing boxers; Marks & Spencer and so forth, the boxer side of the business effectively closed down.

When John, the brother, died, Peter bought the remaining business off of John's son. But he never really liked the boxers. I remember when we came up to speak to Peter, he said to me "what kind of underwear do you wear?" And I replied, "well boxers...briefs, a bit of both." And he responded, "Boxers. Nasty things!"

Photos of our visit are here. The informative Sunspel blog is here.

AN INTERVIEW WITH NICHOLAS BROOKE OF SUNSPEL (PART ONE)

Earlier this month M&I visited the Sunspel factory in Long Eaton, Derbyshire. Whilst there we met with Nicholas Brooke, the director of the company since he and business partner, Dominic Hazlehurst took over 5 and a half years ago.

Theirs is a tale of investing in a factory that was steeped in history and tradition – so much so that everything financial was still done on a ledger when they took over. We discussed the story of Sunspel, textile manufacturing in the East Midlands, and why Japan is so important to them. Over the next few days we will be publishing some extracts of our conversation.

Taking Over

“The business started in 1860 and until 1937 the factory was in Russell St in Nottingham. I’ve known Sunspel since I was about 12 or 13, when I bought my first pair of boxer shorts. My wife's aunt is the companion of the previous owner, Peter Hill, who was part of the family who started the business. My wife’s aunt would say that ‘Peter does not want to sell the company to someone who will offshore it.’ I had been chatting to Dominic for a while about starting a business and we thought it would be a great opportunity to reestablish an old English brand.

In this room (a meeting room directly above the factory) there were four ladies who were the accounts department. Everything was done in handwritten ledgers. Then there was a final lady who had a very old computer on her desk, and as the ledgers came round she then typed them into her computer, which was wiped clean at the end of every year.

The biggest challenge has been that everything here has a massive legacy. We were careful not to chuck it all away though, because if you chuck it all away I think you lose what is ultimately the core of the brand... and then you might as well be making cheap t-shirts.

When we took over everything that was being done was very old fashioned... but we had this business with Japan which was all about slim cut coloured t-shirts."

Japan and The Japanese Consumer

“A Japanese guy went into Harrods or Selfridges... bought some underwear... and thought, ‘my, this is an amazing t-shirt. If I could do this in Japan…’ So he contacted Peter Hill to see if he could have some t-shirts made. Peter went there once... but I don't think he realised that we are in some of the best shops that you can get into.

The Japanese really understand the purity and quality of the product. What they love is; the fact that it is made in Britain, the fact that it is long staple Egyptian cotton and the fact that it is made really beautifully and it lasts. I think the UK consumer is getting closer to the way the Japanese consumer's way of thinking.”

Photos of our visit are here. The informative Sunspel blog is here.

Part two of the interview will follow shortly.

INDUSTRIAL BRITAIN : A FILM BY JOHN GRIERSON & ROBERT FLAHERTY (1931)

Industrial Britain - John Grierson (1933)

We really enjoyed this 1931 documentary on the industrial revolution by John Grierson. It covers a range of craftsmen and their work - from the potter William Davenport Cotton to the steel workers of the shipyards.

If you desire a higher quality version of this film there is a DVD (which includes approximately 40 similar films from the era), entitled Land of Promise available from the BFI.

Footnote: Apologies for having to click on the link to get to the film, the embed code doesn't appear to work.

Image of Mr Grierson from here

AN INTERVIEW WITH PAUL PINKSTONE OF STEVENAGE KNITTING CO. (PART THREE)

Winding Up

'There were other things that contributed to the decision to close. Many of our staff were in their 50s and 60s, very skilled, but a lot of them wanted to slow down, especially on the knitting side. Also, the company that made the knitting machines in Italy closed down last year (2009). We would end up waiting on spares, sometimes for six weeks.

Another reason for closing was with the yarn suppliers. British sheep give quite coarse wool. However, demands of late have been for softer Merino wools. We would get wool from France, Austria and Italy. Most suppliers were doing a stock service so we would put in a bulk order for the raw material and during the season would call in whatever colours we wanted. Hardly any of the spinners now do a stock service so we could end up waiting for six weeks for delivery. With the limited season it is very difficult from getting orders to waiting six weeks for the materials to come in.

We always thought we were better at manufacturing for others than to use the Stevenage Knitting Company label but Albam wanted us to use our label in our final set of jumpers that we did.

I've always made something, ever since childhood. It was always really satisfying seeing your designs on the catwalk or on the cover of Vogue... it seems odd that's gone now. I would like to carry on making something. There's so little manufacturing left now.

In Stevenage, the new town was built on assembly: ESA school furniture, Platignum pens, Kodak cameras and Vincent Motorcycles. Now it is nearly all service industry or companies like Glaxo (Smith Kline) or Fujitsu computers. There's hardly any manufacturing. There's a few engineering companies left... but nowhere near as many there was.

Our chief knitter started at 15 and is now 62. She only left to have children. When her children were young she would have a knitting machine at home. She used to do all of our interpretations of designs - from sketches in to finished garments. She wanted to retire. The closure is a combination of lots of things. It was a very family oriented business, we had cousins working for us... a mother and daughter, sisters... and for some of the staff it was the only job they'd ever done.

I phoned up the Knitting Industries Federation and explained that we were closing. They told me that they thought SKC was the last place producing hand framed garments.'

Images (from top to bottom): The window of the factory on Sish Lane, Stevenage, Spare parts boxes on wall, yards of yarn and a view from the factory floor

AN INTERVIEW WITH PAUL PINKSTONE OF STEVENAGE KNITTING CO. (PART TWO)

Joseph and the 80s

'In 1980 we were approached by Joseph and were very close with them, producing nearly all of the Joseph Tricot range. This was the period of our highest production. We were doing about 15,000 garments a season, with two seasons a year.

During this time we opened another factory unit in Stevenage that concentrated on finer knits. At the same time we were still producing schoolwear for Harrods and in particular Hill House School in Knightsbridge. We also produced officers sweaters for the Royal Artillery and the tank regiment, if they wanted something a bit different from the normal olive drab uniform. We also did sweaters for the Admiral's Cup teams; both the UK and the USA.

When Joseph was sold, production started to drop off. We were competing with the Far East. They (brands) weren't particularly interested in the hand framed knitwear that you see in the video. A lot of what we were doing was still on the hand framed machines. So for this season (winter 2010) we would have been manufacturing during the summer but they (Joseph) didn't order anything.'

Images (from top to bottom): inside the (now closed) factory, a Joseph Tricot fine knit (bound for the V&A) and two Stevenage Knitting Co. jumpers - Admiral's Cup (with red v-neck) and Royal Artillery (with epaulets)

AN INTERVIEW WITH PAUL PINKSTONE OF STEVENAGE KNITTING CO. (PART ONE)

Excerpts from an interview with Paul Pinkstone (MD of Stevenage Knitting Company) conducted over the phone (December 2010) and in person (January 2011):

The Early Days

'The factory started in 1926 and it was just supplying local shops in North Hertfordshire. Mainly childrenswear, hockey jumpers and the like. It was amalgamated during for the war effort so the factory was actually closed down during this period. Then after the war my father took it over. He'd been in the knitting industry in Nottingham before the war. He liked the area and knew the person who owned the factory so took it over from him. My father concentrated on oiled wool sailing sweaters. He sailed himself and supplied country stores with fishermen's knits. He also supplied people like Lillywhites and Harrods with skiwear... and Lilley and Skinner, those old names.

We also used to make for Marks & Spencer in the 1960s, when nearly everything of theirs was made in England. There was quite a lot of export to the States and Japan then too.

My father died in 1973 and I'd just finished at school so I went in to business here with my brother in law and took it over. We carried on doing a similar thing to before.

For more images of M&I's visit to Stevenage Knitting Co. see our Facebook page

FAIR ISLE JUMPERS ON BUSINESS OF FASHION... WELL I NEVER

'FAIR ISLE, United Kingdom — On the most remote inhabited island in Britain, 24 miles south of the Shetland mainland, 27 miles north of the Orkney Islands and 250 miles west of Norway, it’s always sweater season. With 600-foot cliffs overlooking the North Sea, thousands of acres of peat bog and a climate that’s perennially cool and damp, Fair Isle is a rugged place where wool is a way of life.'

So starts an informative piece on the usually luxury brand-centric fashion site Business of Fashion. Briefly covering the history of the remote island's knitwear industry, the article discusses the 'missed opportunity' that some of the natives believe has passed their unique product by.

'Classic design, quality and authenticity matter,' the article continues, 'At the same time, increasingly informed and selective shoppers are asking more and more questions about where and how their products are made. They want to know that the whole life of their product was thought about and guided by the same care and attention as the finished piece.' Hear hear.

Image from Fair Isle

CADBURY SHOULD REMAIN INDEPENDENT

The conservative councillors of Bournville believe that Cadbury should remain independent.

'Cadbury is one of the last remaining great British manufacturing companies. The company has made a huge contribution to the social history of Britain and, over the last 100 years, has made an incalculable contribution to the improvement of working conditions in this country,' a petition sent to local residents states.

Councillors Dawkins, Huxtable and Evans believe that Kraft has little interest in Bournville, citing the American monolith's takeover of Terry's of York as reason for concern. 'In 1993... they made many promises about future employment and production. In 2005 Kraft closed the historic Terry's factory and moved all chocolate production to Slovakia.'

Pictures from the wonderful Cadbury Dairy Milk flickr resource.

ERCOL, THEY HAVE A BLOG

We are glad to see Ercol putting some effort in to its public relations through its blog. Other manufacturers looking to do the same should take note of Ercol's mix of new product features alongside more in-depth, historically noteworthy items.

Above, the company's founder, Lucian R Ercolani OBE and his son, Lucian B Ercolani, DSO DFC are shown giving an interview to the BBC on 25th April 1966, demonstrating the bending of Windsor chair backs - the same equipment is still in use today.

TOASTING SINCE 1946 PT. 3

During the 1980s Dualit benefited from government export grants and attended European trade shows, bringing their product to a wider audience. The factory had to expand to cope with increasing demand, stemming from both the European exposure and the trends at the time. In 1989 Max Gort-Barten was awarded a CBE for services to the British manufacturing industry.

A decade of innovation followed in which Dualit launched their first cordless kettle. Products were re-engineered and re-housed in the Dualit style. In 1999 the company used space shuttle technology to develop the Proheat toaster element, winnning a Millenium award.

With the death of Gort-Barten in 2003, Dualit moved to new premises, in Crawley, West Sussex. Production continues at the site today.

TOASTING SINCE 1946 PT. 2

In the 60s, as the range of toasters grew, Dualits were to be found in commercial kitchens across the UK and even made it on to the QE2.

A three slot version was developed specifically for John Lewis in the 70s. Later in the decade, Dualit employed a Royal College of Art design graduate. The styling of the new ranges continued to find favour with retailers.

LEA & PERRINS

(Fig 1. Front cover of a 1928 Lea & Perrins cookbook)

According to a couple of British newspapers, the original Lea & Perrins recipe was found in a skip.

Brian Keogh, an accountant for the Worcester sauce manufacturer, discovered the encoded handwritten notes in two leather bound folios twenty years ago, The Express states.

Following Keogh's death, his daughter retained the notes, amongst other documents he had collected. The recipe is now to be put on display at Worcester City Museum.

The museum is analysing the handwriting to check that the recipe is authentic. 'Not even the staff knew the recipe, only parts of it, which would account for the different handwriting,' David Nash, collections officer, told The Sun.

(Fig 2. Conveyor belt for crates at Lea & Perrins factory)

Images from www.worcestercitymuseums.org.uk

THE BELL BOYS

Ian McMillan enjoys the 'sonerous concentration' of The Whitechapel Bell Foundry, the makers of Big Ben.

This BBC Radio 4 documentary includes a great interview with master founder Alan Hughes, who talks about visiting bell towers as a child with his father and his route to employment at the foundry. 'I decided to join the company in a moment of absent mindedness, it never occurred to me that I would do anything else.'

Documentary available until Tuesday 10th November at 2pm on BBC iPlayer (click title to listen to the documentary.)

TOASTING SINCE 1946 PT. 1

Founder of Dualit, Max Gort-Barten, the son of an inventor, served five years in WWII before buying a factory in Camberwell, south London, to manufacture his products. The utilitarian design of Dualit's toasters is instantly recognisable and the hallmarks have barely changed since the first patent was issued in 1946.

In 1952 Gort-Barten designed a new, commercial six slice toaster with mechanical timer and manual eject. The residents of Picton Street, SE5, and the entire Gort-Barten family were involved with its production.

In 1954 the Government compulsory purchased the factory and gave Gort-Barten money to build new premises off of Old Kent Road (see image one in Scrapbook Pt. 2, below.)