Lancashire Manufacturing coMpany

COMPANY PROFILE

2013

celebrates 8o years of the envoy brand

Manufacturing in South Africa has grown significantly over the past few decades and various sectors of the industry have received sup-port which has allowed them to grow into competitors in international markets.

Take automotive or metals; both industries have seen major growth and now provide a large contribution to the country’s GDP.

The same can be said for ICT and electronics, chemicals, agriprocessing and textiles, clothing and footwear.

Since 1994, over US$1 billion has been spent on upgrading and modernising South Africa’s textile, clothing and footwear industry, making it increasingly efficient and quality focussed.

Exports account for R1.4 billion for apparel and R2.5 billion for textiles, mostly to the US and European markets. Exports to the US increased by a dramatic 62%

in 2001, driven primarily by the benefits offered under the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which provides for duty-free imports of apparel produced in South Africa.

In the local market, demand is changing and falling in line with that of developed nations and the textile and clothing industry has grown accordingly to offer the full range of services, from natural and synthetic fibre production to non-wovens, spinning, weaving, tufting, knitting, dyeing and finishing.

The South African textile industry also benefits from competitive labour costs and a close proximity to a wealth of natural fibre raw materials.

The government is fully behind the growth of the manufacturing industry because it has great potential for job creation, economic development and the stimulation of other industries such as service and technology.

One company that has been specialising in South

COMPANY REPORt

Editorial – Joe ForshawProduction – Hal Hutchison

PAGE 2 JUN 13

Lancashire Manufacturing celebrates 8o years of the envoy brand

One of the country’s oldest clothing manufacturers celebrates its 80th birthday this year and MD Marc Swiel tells IndustrySA about what has made the company successful since 1933.

Africa’s clothing manufacturing sector since 1933 is Lancashire Manufacturing Company, a Cape Town company which this year celebrates its 80th anniversary.

“I think we are the oldest clothing manufacturer in South Africa, certainly in Cape Town. Not just in school and security wear, in the entire clothing industry,” says Managing Director, Mark Swiel.

“The company has a long legacy. My grandfather went from Lithuania to Lancashire, England, the hub of the textile industry at the time, and then migrated to South Africa where my father was born and he and his brothers joined the business.”

EXPANDING THE RANGE Since the company was founded in 1933, children’s cloth-ing has always been the focus but as trends have changed, the business has adapted to ensure it stays up to date with what the market demands.

“We started in 1933 making juvenile clothing, anything for children. At that time, kids used to wear suits and we used to make the jackets and trousers. We also used to make what we called safari suits with shirts and shorts to match. That slowly changed and the uniform became more standard with trousers, shirts and a blazer so in the 1970s we decided to specialise in school wear and forget about suits.

“We have expanded our range to incorporate blazers and trousers for security uniforms and potentially any kind of military and police uniform. It is a very similar product to what we are producing for the school wear market so we believe we will be very competitive at producing this kind of article,” says Swiel.

In the early days of operation, the company made a name for itself in the local market and this resulted in orders coming in from around the world, especially the UK and one of the biggest retailers of the time.

LANCAshIRE MANUFACtURING COMPANY

JUN 13 PAGE 3

“At that time we supplied John Lewis in the UK. We would make all of their school blazers and trousers but when South Africa had sanctions we lost that business,” says Swiel.

“In 1980, we went to a school wear show in the UK and we gained wholesale customers” adds Swiel. “There is no more manufacturing left in the UK and our customers were looking for specialised school wear with different badges on different blazers made from different fabrics. They also wanted someone flexible who could do small and large orders, anything from 24 to 10,000 units.

“China wasn’t great at producing smaller runs so they tried with us and we steadily built the business up over the years.”

In South Africa today, a lot of the large-scale retailers have turned to the East for their textile needs, mainly because of the drastically low prices that can be gained in that region. For Lancashire Manufacturing, this has meant placing more of an emphasis on the export market.

“Today, about 60% of our product is exported and 40% goes to the local market” says Swiel. “We used to supply the multiples in South Africa but a lot of them have now gone to the East, Bangladesh and India, to get a cheaper deal. We still supply blazers for some of the big chains but we focus on providing the best quality, using the best materials and being very reliable. In school wear, if you don’t deliver on time your product will be wasted as when the children are back at school they no longer need a uniform.”

Swiel suggest that this focus on quality and reliability has gained the company a reputation as the best school wear supplier in the world.

FAR-REACHING SUPPLYEven with a large amount of product being exported, the Envoy brand produced by Lancashire Manufacturing is well recognised in South Africa and stocked across a vast range of outlets.

COMPANY REPORt

PAGE 4 JUN 13

“We supply over 400 retailer and school shops. In total we supply 1000s of schools.

“Our speciality is blazers, trousers, shorts, skirts, sports shorts and we also do a few tunics and dresses.

“We have a massive plant in Diep River, Cape Town. We employ around 400 people in total,” says Swiel.

The company is very keen to remain the industry leaders in the production of school wear but expansion is always a possibility and while the obvious movement into other fashion areas does not interest Swiel, he says that production of commercial uniforms could provide an opportunity.

“There is always an opportunity to expand. We have made various garments for the hotel industry. We don’t want to focus on high-fashion. We could make any sort of corporate uniform.”

HIGHLY TECHNICAL ENVIRONMENTManufacturing, especially of clothing and textiles, has changed over the years and will continue to change and evolve all the time. Technological advancements have helped Lancashire Manufacturing to be flexible and churn out orders, large and small, with quality and precision.

LANCAshIRE MANUFACtURING COMPANY

HT XEX

HEXTEXA Division of Seardel Group Trading (Pty) Ltd

Tel: (023) 347 0814Fax: (023) 347 6117Email: hextex@romatex.co.za

www.seardel.co.za

Hextex has been a proud preferred supplier to Lancashire for many a year and the relationship is one of mutual respect and integrity. We wish the team continued success and longevity

“We use CAD systems so all our patterns, designs and markers are done by a computer. Nothing is done by hand anymore, everything is computerised. We are in the process of putting in electronic cutters as well. All our fabric is laid up with automatic spreaders so there is very little manual intervention.

“We have very sophisticated fusing equipment to ensure there are no issues because of temperature changes.

“In our sewing machines rooms, all of our machines have underbid trimmers, we upgraded our technology recently so everything is state-of-the-art.

“We have automatic jet pocket, PW machines. They are very expensive and ensure that all pockets on trousers and blazers are consistent.

“We have state-of-the-art sleeve setters and button hole machines and we also have a needle detector which ensures there are no broken needles in anything for child safety,” says Swiel.

ECONOMIC PRESSURE?The economic slowdown, as we have discussed in great depth at IndustrySA, has had differing effects on busi-nesses across the country. Lancashire Manufacturing is yet to feel the pressure because of the nature of their product and also, their ability to adapt their lines to meet demand as Swiel explains: “We weren’t that adversely af-fected by the downturn as school wear is required by all schools. Luxury and fashion items felt the effects more. A blazer is a necessity and a compulsory item for the child.

“In the local market, some of the big companies have looked to the East for trousers during the tough times in order to try and save but we managed to offset that by increasing our volumes in the export market and changing our focus from trousers to blazers.

“It’s always tempting to buy materials at a lower price but we’ve always felt that it’s better to have continuity with quality and colour. We have dealt with the same fabric

COMPANY REPORt

PAGE 6 JUN 13

technically engineered fabrics

GELVENOR would like to congratulate Lancashire on their 80th anniversary.

GELVENOR TEXTILES (Pty) Ltd was established in 1965 as weaver, dyer and finisher of synthetic and man-made continuous filament yarn fabrics.

Today, GELVENOR TEXTILES engineers fabric solutions of distinction. Our range of polymer based woven products includes inter alia - apparel fabrics, specialised sport and outdoor fabrics, ballistic and inherently flame retardant textiles, aeronautical textiles, print and coat base cloths, multifil filtration media and speciality reinforcing grids and scrim industrial cloths, for companies who pride themselves on quality and value.

Cnr Anderson & Morewood Roads Hammersdale, Kwazulu Natal South Africa, 3700

t: +27(0) 31 736 8000

www.gelvenor.com

Gelvenor is committed to the ongoing process of finding solutions to our customers’ needs, exploring new opportunities for product innovation and continued growth and development in the markets

ProtectiveRange

suppliers for over 50 years and that has allowed us to build up a consistent and reliable supply chain which is always beneficial.

“We can offer a better replenishment service than our competitors in the East, we can do smaller runs and we can offer quicker turnaround times and these are very important aspects.”

The fact that Lancashire Manufacturing has grown and grown for the last 80 years and successfully navigated various different economic and political problems, shows that management has been planning their strategy very effectively and this looks set to continue as there is a succession plan in place.

“I hope my children will be involved one day. We have a great senior management team. Our production manager has been with us for over 15 years, our logistics manager has been with us for ten years.

“There is a succession plan for the future. If the business moves out of the family then we have plans for that but we hope that we will be involved for as long as possible,” says Swiel.

Along with the focus on quality, long-standing

management and state-of-the-art equipment, Swiel concludes by telling us that relationships with partners in the industry are also vital and being able to rely on suppliers has helped Lancashire Manufacturing to keep the competitive edge.

“We do support Proudly South African companies wherever possible and today, 98% of our fabrics are procured locally from suppliers in South Africa. Our trimmings are all provided by South African companies, we are very pro-South Africa and all of our garments have the Proudly South African label in.

“We are very focussed on being eco-friendly wherever possible. A lot of our success comes from us having very reliable suppliers locally and we never compromise our raw material base for price.”.

technically engineered fabrics

GELVENOR would like to congratulate Lancashire on their 80th anniversary.

GELVENOR TEXTILES (Pty) Ltd was established in 1965 as weaver, dyer and finisher of synthetic and man-made continuous filament yarn fabrics.

Today, GELVENOR TEXTILES engineers fabric solutions of distinction. Our range of polymer based woven products includes inter alia - apparel fabrics, specialised sport and outdoor fabrics, ballistic and inherently flame retardant textiles, aeronautical textiles, print and coat base cloths, multifil filtration media and speciality reinforcing grids and scrim industrial cloths, for companies who pride themselves on quality and value.

Cnr Anderson & Morewood Roads Hammersdale, Kwazulu Natal South Africa, 3700

t: +27(0) 31 736 8000

www.gelvenor.com

Gelvenor is committed to the ongoing process of finding solutions to our customers’ needs, exploring new opportunities for product innovation and continued growth and development in the markets

ProtectiveRange

“Nothing is done by hand anymore, everything is computerised”

JUN 13 PAGE 7

(0)1603 618 000

info@industrysa.com

East Coast Promotions Ltd, Ferndale Business Centre, 1 Exeter street.Norwich, NorfolkNR2 4QB

+27 21 705 3804

www.lancashire.co.za