Re-invigorating Britain’s Cotton Supply Chain

Our work to re-instate Britain’s cotton industry was topic of conversation at a national manufacturing conference.

The Make It British Forum, hosted in association with the British Fashion Institute, was held at the Manchester Business School and was attended by hundreds of delegates from UK brands and manufacturing companies.

Re-linking the supply chain

English Fine Cottons’ Tracy Hawkins gave a presentation “Re-forging Links In the UK’s Cotton Supply Chain”, which highlighted our mission to bring cotton spinning back to Britain.

She gave a talk about our work re-linking the manufacturing chain to give our customers a route to make their cotton products entirely in the UK.

“Being British-made means so much more than just saying you are a British brand,” she told the audience.

Tracy then took part in a question and answer session along with two of our manufacturing partners Anthony Green from Blackburn Yarn Dyers and David Collinge from John Spencer Textiles Ltd.

The session, led by director of Make It British Kate Hills, focussed on the importance of collaboration between manufacturers to reinstate a supply chain, which was decimated in the last century.

Collaborating with partner manufacturers

Tracy described the event as a huge success.

She said: “We have had so much support from people within the textiles industry since we went into production last year. This was a fantastic opportunity to update those people on the progress we have made and also to tell our story to those who hadn’t heard it yet.

“Collaborating with other manufacturers has been crucial to our success. We have always said we can’t re-establish the cotton industry just by spinning cotton alone. That’s why we have spent much of our time linking up with accomplished weavers, knitters, dyers and finishers to show customers it can be done.

“By re-establishing the supply chain, we’ve reinvigorated cotton textiles manufacturing in Britain and given it the catalyst it needed to grow again.”