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My grand day out to a British textiles manufacturer

Civitas, 19 November 2010

If wool was a food chain, Fox Brothers & Co would be king.  The company has been producing wool based textiles for nearly 250 years and its name is synonymous with flannel, a versatile woollen fabric. It is a British company based in Somerset and, unlike many other long established British textile manufacturers, it has survived the great decline the sector has suffered. In fact, it is currently facing a resurgence in demand.

I was kindly invited to tour the mill and experience its quintessential British manufacturing. This blog post details my expedition and the process of creating flannel. As a rare treat, pictures are also included.

The history of Fox Bros has been well charted elsewhere and needs not be discussed here. Suffice it to say, the takeover earlier this year by Deborah Meaden (of Dragons’ Den fame) and Douglas Cordeaux (the new Managing Director) has begun to bring a turnaround of fortunes.

The Tonedale mill is unassuming enough from the outside, but on entering, it is akin to arriving in an ‘Aladdin’s cave’ steeped in history and heritage.  To the immediate left is a room full of the finished article – row on row of different cloths ready to be made into whatever a customer fancies.  There are also displays of the great and good who were Fox Bros’ customers, an enviable list that includes Churchill and his wartime pinstripe as well as Cary Grant and his iconic flannels, not to mention the Duke of Windsor. This display room moonlights as the office of an ex-Savile Row tailor who continues his work directly out of Fox Bros. With a countless choice of cloths onsite, it is easy to see why.5188868825_f6e333b5af

A few steps beyond this is where the magic itself happens. Magic is the right way to describe it because it’s only on entering that you see just how small the operation actually is: Fox Bros employ just twenty people, something that initially appears at odds with the worldwide renown the company holds. However, on examining the processes it is easier to understand that size and renown do not have to be linked.

The intimate size of the mill, which has eight looms, means that it can create entirely bespoke fabrics, coloured to the customer’s own tastes before being delivered to their tailor for the ultimate in unique clothing. As I pass by the counter where the outgoing fabric is being inspected, Douglas Cordeaux, who kindly gave me a guided tour, points out a particular pattern that is destined for a well-known writer and commentator. He feels that the company’s small size provides a level of flexibility that few other mills can provide to the same degree, and he explains that the writer in question has been using Fox Bros for some time.

The machinery used in the mill is around 45 years old, which Cordeaux explained is down to choice rather than lack of capital investment. These older machines are slow enough for the Fox Bros to maintain its famed quality without many faults. Moreover, rivals in other countries have sacrificed quality for speed when purchasing modern looms that can churn out fabric four to five times faster than the rarefied Fox looms. Fox’s emphasis on quality has its own reward, as the company has little competition in the niche they are pursuing, a massive boon that has allowed it to fly in the face of the Primark effect.

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When faults do appear, or the loom stops, the resulting fabric is meticulously checked by employees with extensive knowledge and experience of working with fabric. These are skills that cannot be easily taught but are built up over time. As such, Cordeaux argues that they should be considered artisans rather than mere workers. The effort that goes into the process is clear to see and, as I watch, a lady examines the grey cloth with a magnifying glass and tweezers, picking up lose threads that are impossible for me to see. To my inexperienced eyes, there was nothing wrong at all with the cloth, but Fox Bros’ reputation is built on providing the best quality, whether the customer knows it or not.

The fault checking is by no means the only human interaction with the process. Indeed, Fox’s approach is critically based on the skill of the workforce. The threading process is an impressive task as it required all ends to be strung through eyelets, a painstaking process. The end result though speaks for itself: a quality of woollen cloth unmatched by anywhere else in the world.

However, this was not the finished article – it still felt slightly rough to the touch.  As a result of the general decline of the English textiles industry, whilst the final finishing  used to happen onsite,  cloth now has to be shipped to Huddersfield for the lustring and other processes required before being returned and then dispatched from Somerset to the  customer. Cordeaux acknowledges this is the height of logistical inefficiency, but argues there is no other solution. He hopes that perhaps in time, if demand really picks up, the finishing can be relocated in the South.

Since taking over, Cordeaux and Meaden have diversified the products of the mill, which, while still based on wool, now produces more than flannels and materials for clothes. A recent venture has been into the market for household textiles, using unwanted wool to produce coverings for sofas. In the past, coarse wool was simply burnt as waste, but this recent green innovation avoids this. The market for this previously unwanted material is picking up, and a roll of it was being chalked up for inspection and cutting in front of me. It does indeed feel slightly more rugged than the sublimely smooth finished wool Fox Bros now produces. But this material can be both useful as well as aesthetically pleasing – for something likely to experience more wear, the roughness adds vital strength.

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Fox Bro’s diversifications, along with its new partnerships with the like of Jack Wills, are a show of strength from a company and industry that was weakening until very recently. Moreover, Fox’s developments prove that these manufacturers are not out of date as some would claim. Instead, they are rapidly gaining a new following from those who are concerned by the loss of British heritage industries. Jack Wills for instance prides itself on its self-proclaimed ‘fabulously British clothing’ and is now putting its money where its mouth is by providing Fox Bros with the volume of mass orders it has not seen in recent years. As such, Cordeaux is looking to invest in two modern looms, though not of the industrial sort that volume producers rely on. These ones will produce cloth faster and therefore slightly cheaper, adding a new price range to their already extensive collection.

Does the future appear bright for Fox Bros? Yes and no. While demand is clearly rising, the small workforce is a noticeably aging one. Fox Bros’ competitive advantage is based on the experience of its staff, but new blood is not forthcoming. Cordeaux admits that, despite offering an apprenticeship, finding applicants is hard. He feels that while there is a continuous cohort wanting to enter the industry, they all take courses in design and expect someone else to make the cloth for them, as such there is little enthusiasm to learn the practical skills that an apprenticeship at Fox Bros would teach.

It is this lack of interest from prospective employees that is now the greatest threat to the British textiles industry, rather than competition from abroad. It is a problem that stems from our society’s culture, which frowns on manual labour and vocational training. In addition to this, Cordeaux feels the funds for apprenticeships are misdirected as they concentrate on large companies like Rolls-Royce whilst small ones, such as Fox Bros, miss out. This, Cordeaux thinks, may be a result of complacency and the assumption that all is well because of the high profile of the British textile and clothing market.

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There is a high chance that David Cameron and many of his ministers own Fox Bros suits and have the logo stitched into their jackets – perhaps they should look at it and think about where the material came from. Visiting the mill was an eye-opening one – Fox Bros, like many of our greatest British clothing labels is a small operation, resilient but vulnerable. It is testament to British manufacturing industry, and more acknowledgement of its value is required from Government. I would encourage them, or indeed any reader, to visit to the mill and appreciate the continuation of an artisan trade and the resulting materials first-hand. You never know, you may find something for your next jacket…

Further photos are available on Civitas’ new Flickr feed.

With thanks to Fox Brothers.

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