Just a quick note to let you know that we will be exhibiting at the Textile Forum in a couple of weeks again. We met so many old and new friends and customers at the last event back in September last year that we just had to be there again. So, make a date in your diary for Wednesday 13^th and Thursday 14^th March 2024 and head off to One Marylebone, NW1 4AQ (same place as last time). The nearest tube station is Great Portland Street. Entrance to the event is entirely free, so no excuses.

Events like these are a great way to meet many people in a very short time. We can get to know our customers and their needs much better, while they can see for themselves all the exciting things we are working on at our factory. How can you resist the invitation?

See you there!

In between lockdowns in the summer of 2020, we came to hear about another ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’ and wanted to tell you about it.

DKS Trimmings Ltd based in the Rhondda Valley in South Wales was established in 1950 by Mr Frank Blowers. He was approached to make leather buttons for Marks & Spencer in ‘unlimited’ numbers and took up the challenge, growing the business at its peak to employ almost 40 full-time people. Upon his retirement in the 1980’s his son, Dennis, took over the reins.

Nearly 40 years later and approaching 80 years of age, Dennis was gripped in the depth of the Covid pandemic. He was still making buttons in small runs into 2020, but with lock-down and various other issues, he found he had no choice but to ‘call it a day’. With no successor in line, things looked bleak.

The similarities between our interest in James Grove & Sons Ltd back in 2013 and DKS could not have been more striking. For once again we were facing the potential extinction of a specialist button-making branch in the UK and so we agreed on the spot to do something. How could we not get involved?

It has taken quite a while, all things said and done, for Dennis to unwind 70 years of production and ready the machines for delivery to us in Bourton-on-the-Water. But on Wednesday, 10^th March it happened.

It may take us a while, but we have taken the first steps on this new journey. Please don’t expect any leather buttons to be delivered any time soon, though. Setting up and learning this craft will take time – months, we expect. But we’ll drop you a line from time to time telling you how we are getting on. Exciting times.