Textiles, Craftsmanship & Design

MANUFACTURING & SERVICES

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In 2016 we invested £110,000 to purchase a state-of-the- art knitting machine that produces the Guernsey without any seams as it was historically produced by skilled hand knitters “ One of our highly-skilled machinists linking a garment. All of the sewing is done by linking, there are no cut edges to our components they are all knitted to shape

Next we introduced a number of heavy cable Aran stitch designs. The advent of the new styles increased sales dramatically resulting in over 40% of our production being sold to Japan. In 2016 we invested £110,000 to purchase a state-of-the-art knitting machine that produced the Guernsey without any seams as it was historically produced by skilled hand knitters. The machine has proved invaluable in meeting today’s demand for fast response, and the internet sales of a single garment. We now offer 15 colours over 12 sizes and several styles. Our internet sales are literally worldwide. We are proud to produce Guernsey’s for the RNLI, officers uniforms for various Army Regiments including, 7th armoured (Desert Rats), Intelligence Corps, Tank Regiment, Mercian Regiment, 20th Armoured, Small Arms, and many more. Another industry that has given us a different dimension is the film industry. We produced the Guernsey in which Colin Firth was shot dead at the end of Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy and also all of the Guernseys worn by the actors in

the recent production of Swallows and Amazons . We are currently developing garments for two other productions. Guernsey Post issued a set of commemorative stamps on 17th May the featuring our Guernseys – this is a mark of how iconic the Guernsey is. The Guernsey will always be the core of our business but in order to maintain and increase our turnover we have to produce innovative designs. The old adage of one can never stand still in business is correct; the fashion side of the business is akin to the pop industry where you are only as good as your last hit record. Complacency is a recipe for disaster. In 1976 three of us started a company called Paul James Knitwear Ltd. I designed some new fabrics and we started to supply wholesalers and retailers, some as far afield as Holland. By 1980 we moved to a 20,000 sq ft building. The latest computerised knitting machines were bought from Switzerland and the workforce grew to more than 100 employees. My route to Guernsey

Our X BED machine knitting a bespoke Guernsey. Since purchasing this machine we offer a bespoke service to provide our customers who require longer or shorter body lengths and/or sleeve lengths from our standard size specification

31 GUERNSEYWOOLLENS |