Back to work call leads to sales boom

A Shropshire custom clothing manufacturer and supplier of personalised workwear has pushed the button on a major expansion drive after seeing orders surge with the economy beginning to re-open.

MyWorkwear has bounced back from an initial drop in orders twelve months ago to post an impressive £300,000 increase in sales, with contracts - from coffee shops and caravan parks to entertainers and bakeries - being placed in the last few months.

Demand has been so strong that the company has had to double its staff and start a twilight shift to ensure the machines are running for more hours.

“Like many in business, we were slightly concerned with what 2021 would bring with the announcement of lockdown 3, mixed with the UK leaving the EU,” said James Worthington, managing director of Telford-based MyWorkwear.

“However, we have seen the opposite. Online sales have continued to increase rapidly and, as confidence starts to return, we have also seen growth in the number of traditional tenders including successful ones with Warren Services Ltd, Thomas Ridley Ltd and James and James Ltd.

“The reduction of Covid-19 cases and the success of the vaccination programme has certainly helped lift optimism and we’ve responded by increasing the workforce to 25 and putting on additional shifts that maximise the power of our recently-purchased 8-head Tajima TFMX-IIC1508 machine.”

MyWorkwear, which was founded in 1976 by James’ father Mike Worthington, regularly delivers over 3500 personalised garments every week and investment in a new garment printer and heat press gives it the potential to increase this to 8000 – a figure that could be reached by the end of the year.

This includes standard workwear, speciality uniforms including anti-static, fire retardant and water-resistant clothing and, thanks to state-of-the-art embroidery and heat transfer technology, hundreds of personalised uniforms as more companies look to reinforce corporate branding.

James said: “In the last few months, we have invested in three new starters for the office/production and are working with Shropshire Chamber of Commerce to recruit a further 3 people on the Kickstart scheme.

“As we emerge from lockdown, it is vital that we do our bit to support businesses and offer employment opportunities for young people who have been badly affected by the pandemic.”

The Sausage Man, the UK’s leading supplier of sausages and other speciality foods from Germany, is one of the companies tapping into MyWorkwear expertise to support its emergence from Government restrictions.

“We had to pivot a fair bit during the last twelve months, with our foodservice business pretty much disappearing overnight. This meant we had to look at alternative revenue streams and decided to sell our unique products to end consumers and this has gone really well,” said Joshua Grocott, marketing director at The Sausage Man.

“With this new retail focus, we decided to complete a full rebranding exercise and used James and his team to supply our usual branded workwear for staff and customers, as well as personalised baseball caps and aprons that, for the first time, will be available for sale on our website. It’s a great way to reinforce our brand and create lots of ambassadors for our products in the process.”

Pictured: James Worthington from MyWorkwear