Fashion and tradition: how John Smedley is innovating in a tough market
In the final article in a series on high-end British manufacturing we look at a clothing brand that dates to the 18th century but is increasingly on-trend
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Tina is wielding a large pair of scissors with authority, slicing with immense skill and precision.
With 38 years of experience, she is an important member of the 230-strong manufacturing team producing fine knitwear for the John Smedley brand. Using a chalk, a semi-circular guide and a sharp pair of scissors, she cuts necklines in the knitted garments ready for the final trim to be attached.
The brand’s site in the Peak District, Derbyshire, is the oldest continuously operating factory in the world, with a maze of buildings, one of which dates to 1784. Inside is a mix of hi-tech Japanese knitting technology, skilled artisans such as Tina, who finish garments by hand, and some machines which date back more than 60 years and have to be kept going with bespoke parts. Another smaller Smedley factory, in Armthorpe, South Yorkshire, also finishes the garments.
The company – which holds royal warrants from King Charles and Queen Camilla – has faced difficult times in the luxury market in recent years, but is surviving by mixing heritage with innovation: from launching new designs and forging celebrity partnerships to investing in the latest equipment.
Most UK fashion manufacturing closed down more than 30 years ago as brands moved to cheaper offshore manufacturing locations such as China, India and Bangladesh.
There are 3,515 manufacturers of clothing in the UK, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics collated by UKFT, 315 fewer than a decade before. The number of people working in the industry is now just 15,000 according to the ONS, compared with 173,000 30 years ago.
Smedley has stayed true to its roots. It not only knits and puts together garments, but dyes cotton yarn, and washes, steams and packs the finished products, all in a beautiful wooded valley in Lea Bridge, near Matlock.
Water comes from a brook that runs under the factory with much of the steam for its processes generated by ancient-looking boilers as well as some shiny new silver ones.
Together, the workers produce 4,500 items a week not only under the John Smedley name, but under contract for high-end brands including Lanvin, Margaret Howell and Daks.
In 2024, it invested more than £4m in updating machinery to become more efficient and increase the range of styles it can make.
Jess McGuire-Dudley, the 41-year-old marketing expert who stepped up to be managing director last year after a decade at the company, says the family owners are “open to change”. “As long as it is in an appropriate way, that’s always embraced,” she says.
While some of its methods may be age-old, she says Smedley is increasingly on trend. The company is not struggling to attract new workers as, McGuire-Dudley says, young people are interested in craft skills and the sustainability aspect of making goods closer to home.
To help attract and retain people, the company has refurbished housing on its site to offer cheap accommodation alongside other staff benefits including pilates classes and a running club.
However, McGuire-Dudley says the factory is racing to train its younger workers as its most skilled employees near retirement age. The apprenticeship can take up to two years.
The commitment to craft skills is part of the founding philosophy that has protected John Smedley when other British-made brands have fallen away.
“He always had a vision of the highest quality produced for the top end of the market,” she says. “That is what we have tried to stay true to.”
The battle for survival is also self-funded by the business, which is owned by about 65 members of the founding family and chaired by the eighth-generation John Smedley descendant Ian Maclean.
The first in a line of John Smedleys was brought in to manage the original factory, owned by the family of Florence Nightingale. The Smedleys took control of the business, then making spun cotton and muslin, in 1818, eventually adapting it to spin wool and cotton yarns and then knit them into clothing.
In 1932, Smedley’s knitting machines began making the three-button polo shirt, still one of its bestsellers. By the 50s and 60s the brand’s fame was at its height, with celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles and Audrey Hepburn photographed wearing John Smedley roll necks.
Today, John Smedley sells around the worldwo London boutiques and luxury outlets including Selfridges, Harrods and Brown Thomas
The urbane British actor Bill Nighy recently collaborated with the label on two collections, having worn its three-button polo shirt since he was 17. The brand also created a cheaper diffusion line, JS, which was sold in John Lewis in 2024 and is now sold
The flurry of activity aims to reverse a fall in sales and profits. A drop in the value of the yen hit sales to Japan, a key market, responsible for half of international trade.
John Smedley’s sales fell 5% to £16.8m in the year to 31 March 2025, while the group slid to a £720,000 pre-tax loss, having made a £270,000 profit the year before, according to accounts filed at Companies House.
McGuire-Dudley and her team have responded with an improved online presence and by revving up European trade with more direct sales adding a dedicated French website. It has opened a new showroom in Milan where it is testing pop-up sales events.
The deal with Nighy, the JS line and a new website helped to drive the first year of UK sales growth in more than five years in the 12 months to the end of March 2026.
“The market is still extremely tricky,” says McGuire-Dudley. “This year we are in the midst of a turnaround. The last several months have been profitable. There is a sense it is all coming through but it is a slow burn as we are having to recoup massive volume losses from Japan.”
While the recent rise in the yen may help sales in Japan, she says: “We can’t run a business on hope. We have had to pivot.”
“We are starting to prove those ideas are working. The new financial year will be transformational I think.”
The company has benefited from the support of its family shareholders who have held out against buyout offers to support British manufacturing.
Robert Marsden-Smedley, an eighth-generation family member and board director, says:“When my father was chairman we had a couple of approaches. That was tempting and we felt they were trying to buy it with a view to asset stripping and what was left would not be us.”
Family commitment is needed as UK manufacturers face a raft of higher costs with increases in employers’ national insurance contributions and the legal minimum wage adding £700,000 to Smedley’s bills last year.
McGuire-Dudley says: “From a manufacturing point of view it was slightly shortsighted. Many manufacturers smaller than us went under.
“Energy and labour costs can wipe out profitability straight away and you don’t have any control over them.”
Marsden-Smedley says the family is determined to prioritise its Derbyshire factory and UK manufacturing over short-term profit.
“The family is very proud of what we have got here. Sure, we could do things more cheaply overseas but it wouldn’t be what the family want to support. It’s a responsibility. I feel part of our job is being custodians of the business today to pass it on to the next generation in as good a state or a bit better.”
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