Images_Digital_Edition_September_2019

www.images-magazine.com SEPTEMBER 2019 images 45 IS BRAND PROFILE Matthew Easter tells Images how Trutex has continued to thrive through a focus on quality Made to last C litheroe in Lancashire’s Ribble Valley has been a home to the garment industry for more than 200 years, since becoming a centre for cotton milling during the Industrial Revolution. Few businesses from the 18th and 19th centuries survive, but there’s one that has not only survived, but continues to thrive: Trutex. Founded as Clitheroe Shirtings in 1865, it has continuously adapted to the times, evolving into one of the UK’s leading suppliers of school uniforms in the process. It’s not always been plain sailing for the business, which ran into troubled waters in the 1990s. However, an injection of money from investment company Endless in 2010 along with a new management team at the helm saw the company steered back on course. The current management team, which took over piloting the company in a buy- out from Endless in 2014, has doubled turnover over the past nine years and expanded the workforce to 200. “When we came in, we saw a business that had had some tough trading years but with sufficient potential about it and a legacy,” explains managing director Matthew Easter, who joined in 2010 from a manufacturing background. “There was strength to the brand and its position in the marketplace and we thought, if we could deal with some of the day-to-day issues such as getting the right product out to customers at the right time, there was scope to build the business. From 2010 to 2014, we made incremental improvements year on year but it wasn’t till after that period that we had consistency and stability.” Akoa sportswear One of the first moves was to expand the range by launching its Akoa brand in 2011, specialising in sportswear for schools. It has proven a success, but Matthew adds that, as with all schoolwear, it takes time to grow sales. “It took three to four years to actually get some traction in that market. Schoolwear is so seasonal. Everything happens in the summer so you have only one shot at it and then you have to wait till the next 12 months in the cycle.” Around 20 years ago, production moved overseas but, in 2013, Trutex started manufacturing again after acquiring one of its suppliers, John Hall Schoolwear, when John Hall, the company’s founder, decided to retire. The move was aimed at safeguarding the capabilities of a “highly specialised” company that manufactured garments with unique patterns and trims, mainly for private schools. “It’s a small industry in the UK because it’s difficult to service such small quantities for unique specialised garments,” Matthew explains. Work on site in Clitheroe now includes sewing badges, brading and cording, using Tajima machines. However, doing anything more would not fit the business cycle, Matthew explains. “There’s a huge spike in the middle of the year. That does not justify a room full of embroidery machines as for six to seven months of Trutex saw an upturn in sales after the government switched secondary schools to academies