Pringle of Scotland
Pringle of Scotland Ltd. or Pringle is an internationally known fashion company founded in Hawick in 1815 by the Scottish entrepreneur Robert Pringle .
From the high-quality woolen hosiery and woolen underwear from the early days, complete collections for upscale women , men and sportswear (especially in the golf sector ) as well as accessories and leather goods in the upper price segment have developed over the years . The company's trademarks are a protected argyle pattern and a stylized rising lion as a logo . The original family business , which is still one of the purveyors to the court of the British royal family , was converted into a public limited company in 1960 , bought by a Scottish cashmere manufacturer in 1967 and taken over by a textile company based in Hong Kong in 2000 .
Company history
Starting times
In 1815, the Scottish entrepreneur Robert Pringle and two partners named Waldie and Wilson acquired the Whiskey House Mill in Hawick in the Scottish Borders , which supplied hydropower , and founded a factory for the manufacture of high-quality woolen stockings under the name Waldie, Pringle, Wilson & Co. Robert Pringle is considered to be one of the founders of the Scottish commercial wool processing industry and his company as "Britain's oldest fashion brand". In the 1870s, the fabric range was expanded to include high-quality cashmere wool. In the meantime, the company, whose name was changed over the years to Robert Pringle & Son and finally to Pringle of Scotland , was working with knitting machines . By the end of the 19th century people had moved away from the manufacture of stockings and towards the manufacture of wool underwear. In 1905, the Pringle portfolio was expanded to include high-priced woolen outerwear, such as sweaters and cardigans . In the 1920s, the diamond- like Argyle pattern was developed by Pringle, which would later attract an elite clientele such as the Duke of Windsor .
Success years from the 1940s
In 1934 the company introduced a soaring lion as a logo on the labels , which is borrowed from the flag of the Scottish kings ("Lion Rampant") and is still embroidered on the brand's sweaters at chest height to this day, for example. In the same year, the first chief designer, Otto Weisz, was hired. In 1939, a large part of the company headquarters in Hawick was destroyed by a fire and had to be rebuilt. The Pringle twin set , an invention from the world of golf in the 1930s, which Audrey Hepburn, among others, liked to wear as casual wear in the following years, slowly became an everyday bestseller for the company from 1934 under Weisz's creative leadership, after initially being unfamiliar Garment for women of high society had caused outrage. In the 1940s and 1950s - the time of the American sweater girl - international stars such as Jean Simmons , Grace Kelly , Brigitte Bardot and Margot Fonteyn were associated with the Pringle brand. In 1948 Pringle was appointed purveyor to the British royal family by the Queen Mother . It is known that Queen Elizabeth II , who Pringle appointed purveyor to the court in 1956, orders numerous Pringle twin sets every year to this day. In 1955, production was expanded to include a factory in Berwick-upon-Tweed , 65 miles from Hawick . In 1960 Pringle was converted into a public company. In the 1960s the company had more than 3,000 employees. In 1967 Pringle was bought by Joseph Dawson Holdings Ltd (later: Dawson International ), a cashmere manufacturer also from Hawick, for £ 5.8 million . In 1978, the then aspiring actor Richard Gere appeared in a Pringle outfit on the cover of US Vogue . In the following years, however, the quality of Pringle items fell under Dawson's leadership, and cheaper lambswool was used instead of expensive cashmere and the mass market was targeted.
Development into a golf and sports brand
In the 1980s, Pringle's plaid pattern was seen on international golf courses after well-known golfers such as Nick Faldo - with whom an advertising contract had existed since 1981 - appeared on the course in Pringle clothing with media coverage. Pringle grew into an upscale and conservative sports brand with sales of nearly £ 30m in the mid-1980s. From 1989 there was its own Faldo Collection . Like many other high-priced brands - bpsw. Burberry , Aquascutum , Fred Perry , Stone Island , etc. - Pringle was, to the chagrin of the company, associated in the 1990s with mainly British hooligans and chavs who adorned themselves with prestige brands . The companies tried to distance themselves from this clientele in various ways, for example by reducing the use of typical brand patterns in the collections in order not to damage the brand image any further. From the 1990s the company expanded worldwide with its own Pringle stores. In the mid-1990s there were around 10 own Pringle shops in Germany and 22 franchise shops, for example in Hamburg or Weimar , all of which were closed a few years later. In 1998, Pringle accounted for no more than 10% of Dawson International's total sales of £ 200 million, which until 2004 included the Italian knitwear brand Ballantyne . The production facility in Berwick was closed and the workforce in Hawick was reduced from approximately 2000 employees to 450 within five years. In 2000 there were around 250 employees in Hawick.
Repositioning from the 2000s
In 2000, the SC Fang & Sons group of companies ( Fang Brothers Knitting Ltd. , founded in 1966) around the Fang brothers from Hong Kong bought the Pringle company for less than 7 million pounds. Since then, Dawson International has focused solely on cashmere production. Although the new owners made great efforts to establish the brand on the international catwalks - and thus in the luxury goods segment - and invested 45 million pounds in the production facility in Hawick, the factory with its last 80 employees was finally closed in 2008. In response, there were - ultimately unsuccessful - demands to prohibit the company from using the Scottish lion as a logo. In fiscal 2007, the company had reported losses of over £ 9m for the third year in a row - also due to increasing competition from Asia and Italy , where wages were 30% below Scottish wages. The company headquarters and around 30 employees remained in Hawick. Pringle eventually began placing orders with other knitwear factories in the Scottish Borders so that they could continue to label their products as "Made in Scotland".
British businesswoman Kim Winser, who also became a partner in Pringle, was appointed CEO , transforming Pringle from an expensive, but somewhat outdated and old-fashioned golf and sports brand into an international luxury goods company. Under Winser, for example, the exclusive Gold Label and Red Label collections were introduced from 2002 (now discontinued), elegant flagship stores opened in London, Milan , New York City and Tokyo (all but London are now closed) and Pringle fashion at London Fashion Week demonstrated. During this time, celebrities like David Beckham and Julia Roberts were associated with the Pringle brand. Annual sales increased by a third. The chief designer from 2001 to 2005 was the Briton Stuart Stockdale, a former Romeo Gigli employee who, alongside Winser, was largely involved in the initially successful repositioning of the Pringle brand. In 2002, the sporty brand Pringle Sport was launched, which replaced the previous golf collections, as well as a children's and baby collection , all of which were discontinued after a while. In 2003, accessories such as handbags were added to the Pringle range. In 2005, Stockdale's successor was the British Claire Waight Keller, a former Gucci designer who remained creative director at Pringle until 2011 and then moved to Chloé in Paris . Winser left Pringle in 2006 and moved to Aquascutum. Under Waight Keller, the wool quality was improved and in 2007 the slightly lower priced second line called Pringle 1815 , which was conceived for a younger audience, was established, which was discontinued after a few years. In the spring of 2013, Pringle left the second line Pringle 1815 through a license agreement with the Japanese textile company Sanyo Shokai, which also operates Japanese second lines under license for competitor Burberry until 2015 ( Burberry Black Label , Burberry Blue Label ), initially for the Japanese market only revive.
The 2010s
In the late 2000s, Pringle had annual sales of approximately £ 60 million. In 2009, former Chanel manager Mary-Adair Macaire was hired as CEO of Pringle to return the brand to profitability. Under Macaire, British artist David Shrigley created a short animated film for Pringle. Also in 2009, actress Tilda Swinton was featured in the ad campaign and in a corporate image film shot by photographer Ryan McGinley . The collaboration with the Scot Swinton was continued in the following seasons. In early 2011, SC Fang & Sons employed the eccentric British fashion designer Alistair Carr, a former Balenciaga employee, as a designer for Pringle, who was fired in April 2012. He was succeeded by Massimo Nicosia. For the 2010 financial year, Pringle reported a loss of over £ 7m and SC Fang & Sons had to support the company with nearly £ 11m in late 2011.
In early 2016, Fran Stringer was hired by Mulberry as a Pringle women's fashion designer; Massimo Nicosia took over the management of men's fashion.
Since 2006, the Pringle collections for women have been presented to the international specialist audience at London Fashion Week and those for men at Milan Fashion Week . Worldwide there are Pringle stores in London (only Sloane Street ; Bond Street was closed) and Hong Kong in 2012 . The largest sales market after Great Britain is North America. British competitors for the brand include Burberry, Aquascutum, John Smedley, Daks and Kilgour.
Web links
- Official Pringle website
- Pringle 1815 website for the Japanese market
- Pringle catwalk collections on vogue.co.uk since 2003
Individual evidence
- ↑ Few experiments at London Fashion Week , faz.net, February 19, 2004
- ^ A look back at some of the defining years , hawick-news.co.uk, accessed May 24, 2012
- ↑ Pringle of Scotland In the beginning there was wool , faz.net, May 21, 2010
- ^ A look back at some of the defining years , hawick-news.co.uk, accessed May 24, 2012
- ^ Diamond in the rough , scotsman.com, April 4, 2006
- ↑ RECREATING STRATEGY EXTRA WEB CASE 2: PRINGLE OF SCOTLAND (PDF; 106 kB), sagepub.com, accessed: May 24, 2012
- ↑ Clare Waight Keller: The Woman Who Made Pringle Cool ( Memento of the original from March 14, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , nathlosblog.de, September 8, 2010
- ^ Pringle of Scotland Launches New Contemporary Line 'Pringle 1815' , prnewswire.co.uk, February 5, 2007
- ↑ Japan fashion: Pringle of Scotland to enter Japanese market after deal with Sanyo Shokai ( Memento of the original of July 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , moderntokyotimes.com, July 11, 2012
- ^ A lady from Chanel who wants to drive Pringle off the golf course , guardian.co.uk, September 17, 2009
- ^ Pringle of Scotland Animation by David Shrigley - Life Behind The Scenes , youtube.com, accessed: May 24, 2012
- ↑ Ryan McGinley for Pringle Of Scotland with Tilda Swinton , lesmads.de, January 19, 2010
- ↑ Pringle of Scotland advertises with Oscar winner Tilda Swinton , horizont.net, January 13, 2012
- ↑ Pringle of Scotland gets Alistair Carr ( Memento of the original from January 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , fabeau.de, March 28, 2011
- ^ Alistair Carr leaves Pringle of Scotland , vogue.de, April 26, 2012
- ↑ Pringle receives £ 11 million bailout , telegraph.co.uk, November 14, 2011
