A family-run heritage textile mill established in 1783 is celebrating its 240th business anniversary. AW Hainsworth manufactures iconic British woollen cloth, high-performing textiles, and iconic fabrics for customers worldwide. Yorkshire Post photographer, Tony Johnson, speaks to managing director Amanda McLaren.
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00:00 I'm Amanda McLaren, I'm the Managing Director of A.W. Hainsworth, which is an iconic UK
00:05 textile mill, woolen mill, based in Pudsey, near Leeds.
00:09 It's our 240th year, so the business was established in 1783, which is unbelievable, isn't it,
00:15 to think that we've continued to be that woolen mill for all those years and stayed true to
00:20 being a family business throughout that whole journey to today.
00:24 The company is a woolen mill.
00:26 We're a fully integrated mill and have been for many, many decades now.
00:30 We buy in wool, like you can see here in my hands, from Australia and New Zealand, and
00:36 we buy in a particular range of specifications that suit the application types for our markets.
00:42 Very diverse in terms of markets, so we operate in multiple different types of markets that
00:48 mean that we need really good technical understanding of applications, hence why we buy such a range
00:53 of different types of fibre for those applications.
00:55 We control it here in the mill from taking the wool, blending that, carding that, turning
01:00 it into yarn, spinning, winding, and then moving on to dyeing and finishing that yarn.
01:05 We're supplying a multiple range of markets, so application types may be leisure cloth
01:11 for the snooker and pull market, which we've got a huge presence, particularly in the Far
01:16 East.
01:17 We also have a really big presence in the protective sector, so our fabrics are used
01:21 in applications for both fire and police, the PPE.
01:24 We also operate in ceremonial and have done for many years, and got a really big history
01:29 in ceremonial uniforms.
01:32 And going right back to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, where our red scarlet fabric was
01:37 used, which identified the British troops as the thin red line, which was the fabric
01:42 that we'd manufactured in this mill.
01:44 So quite a history in ceremonial as well.
01:47 It's a family-run business, so the family lived around this area of Pudsey, Farsley,
01:51 Stanley.
01:52 This is an eighth-generation business now, so all those family members have got much
01:57 history, not only of the mill, but the wonderful surrounding areas that they lived in.
02:01 It's continued with acquisitions, it's continued to take some risk associated with
02:06 growing the business, sometimes under very difficult economic climate conditions, and
02:12 it's come through those periods positively.
02:14 It's had its challenges like all businesses, but it's overcome them, and I think that
02:19 history and that determination and resilience is still here now, and is very much driven
02:24 between the family and the executive team to carry on in that way, to take those measured
02:29 risks, but to make sure that everything that we do is around retaining a family business
02:34 and sustaining it for the future.
02:36 It's a fantastic sector, first and foremost, to work in.
02:39 I think people sometimes have the wrong impression of a textile business, that it's very old
02:44 school, it's the Dark Ages, it's a dull and miserable mill, and actually it's quite
02:48 the opposite.
02:49 It's a fantastic sector to work in, and for those that are buoyant in this sector,
02:54 it's a really enjoyable sector to be in.
02:56 I think the challenges have been around the impact of the pandemic, of course, the impact
03:02 of Brexit, which has shifted some of the dynamics, both in terms of labour and trading.
03:08 Even now, I think, as with all businesses, you know, some of those challenges remain
03:11 around labour rates and energy prices, you know, we have to battle through them and remain
03:17 strong.
03:18 And I think for some businesses that has been particularly difficult and they've not stayed
03:22 around.
03:23 For us and for many of the other wonderful textile businesses in the north of England,
03:29 you know, we're very determined to get through that.
03:31 So it's about remodelling and repurposing and making sure that we know what our trajectory
03:35 of growth looks like and the investment that's required to keep that sustainability journey
03:39 going.
03:40 You know, I think we do have competition, it's not necessarily on in the Far East.
03:43 I think the Far East has affected us more in terms of customer behaviour, particularly
03:47 post-COVID.
03:48 I think the lag for China to come out of the pandemic has been far greater than any of
03:53 us have really read about and thoroughly understood.
03:56 And as a result of that, we've seen markets that have been, you know, buying, slow down
04:00 quite significantly and not yet fully recovered.
04:03 So that's not been quite in line with our expectation.
04:06 But I think we understand that that is down to the economic climate in China rather than
04:11 any other competitor taking business from us.
04:13 It's certainly not the latter.