Historic family-run clothing manufacturer secures £1.5m to support growth plans

Cynergy Business Finance (CBF), the asset-based lending arm of Cynergy Bank, provided a £1.5m invoice discounting facility for the company to support the clothing manufacturer’s growth plans.

Founded in 1940 when cotton was in short supply, the Wakefield Shirt Company quickly gained a reputation for innovation as it led the adoption of synthetic and mixed fibre clothing.

Through a series of successful acquisitions, the group today is formed of four companies: The Wakefield Shirt Company, Double two, Wm. Sugdens & Sons and Threadneedle Company Image.

Selling over three million shirts per year, in more than 40 countries the group said it saw compelling opportunities for growth.

With its existing financiers unable to provide the flexibility that it needed to grow, The Wakefield Shirt Group (WSG) conducted a search for the right finance partner.

CBF said it provided comprehensive credit to WSG’s international customers and established flexible concentration limits.

This enabled the creation of a tailored multi-currency facility for WSG which CBF said maximises the funds available and offers valuable flexibility.

The move has freed up working capital to accelerate progress on WSG’s expansion plans.

John Donner, managing director of the Wakefield Shirt Group and grandson of founder Isaak Donner, said “When we needed working capital to expand CBF were able to help. Their process was straightforward, with a flexible and friendly approach throughout.”

He added: "Effective communication between CBF and our team ensured that any minor difficulties were rapidly ironed out.”

Dan Burton, executive director at Cynergy Business Finance, said: “WSG have a tremendous heritage, and the staff at all four businesses in the group are clearly passionate about the products that they produce.

"It has been an absolute pleasure to be able to credit them with the real value of what they are creating, to equip John and his team with the financial support for the next chapter in the story of this outstanding business.”

Isaak Donner and Frank Myers originally set up the Wakefield Shirt Company to produce quality men’s shirts from a small, fourth floor, corner room of a building in Wakefield.

With cotton supplies in famine through the war and only delicate viscose rayon materials available, the company decided to use this material to make blouses for those women of Britain performing the tasks in factories, previously held by men who had been sent off to fight the war.

By 1946, it had taken over the entire building transforming, becoming a key player in the men’s shirt market.

It later bought an eight-acre site to the south of Wakefield for its manufacturing operations.

During the 1960s, the company advertised its shirts alongside , James Bond classics From Russia with Love and Goldfinger.

In 2013, the group received a Queens Award for Enterprise - International Trade.