Bespoke tailor turns to internet for move into American market

A YORKSHIRE tailor is hoping a new internet-based service which measures clients for bespoke suits will help him to break into the American market.

Dale Rhodes runs the business his father set up 60 years ago in Dewsbury and believes that the new service will help him to double the eight-strong staff at his £800,000 turnover business.

Mr Rhodes had tried a system online to get people to measure themselves, but found that potential customers were not keen to navigate their way through a complicated set of instructions and measurements.

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He has come up with a new way of measuring the clients based on off-the-peg sizes which are then adjusted to the individual.

Suits for men cost £500-£1,000 with the most popular being £700 to £800 as they “are more hard-wearing” compared to the “luxury” £1,000 suits, says Mr Rhodes. “They carry on performing – even after 15 years I have seen barristers wearing one of those suits and they still look good,” he said. “Whereas the expensive suits are more of a luxury item,” he added.

He is planning to launch the new site within four weeks, with shirts as a pilot scheme.

If this is successful he will then add suits to the service – and once the UK market has been secured he is hoping that a Facebook campaign targeting men in the United States will be successful.

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“We like Facebook, because once the client has used our service and ‘liked’ our page, all their friends are aware. We are hoping it will go viral and that will help us to break into the American market, which is immense,” he said.

Mr Rhodes is ready to grow his operation if breaking into the American market proves worthwhile. He says he will need to expand his customer service provision and expects to double the number of staff in 12 months.

People expect to have a response very soon if they have ordered online, particularly if they have sent an email,” he said.

“When the customer places the order, it creates a pattern in the machine at the factory. It goes straight into the system to cut the cloth, so we can have turnaround within four weeks.”

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The business was set up by Mr Rhodes’ father Bert 60 years ago, and quickly grew to 14 shops and a factory with branches across Yorkshire, including Huddersfield, Halifax and Leeds.

Mr Rhodes describes the “glory days” of tailoring in the 1960s and 70s, with his father employing 100 people at one particular time.

“Everyone used to have a suit from the mills,” he said.

The business went into decline in the 1980s when businesses were affected by a general decline in manufacturing which was felt particularly acutely in Yorkshire.

“It all went downhill in the late 1970s. People forget how hard hit we were in this area and of course the first thing people cut back on is ordering a suit,” he said.

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Not to be beaten by the recession of the early 1980s, Mr Rhodes took the business in a different direction by deciding to cold call businesses.

He found success with insurance companies such as Allied Dunbar, but his biggest break came when he broke into the legal market.

He caught the eye of lawyers and barristers in Leeds, which led him to other clients in London and Manchester and since then he and his business have never looked back.

“They need suits all the time and particularly like hand-cut suits,” he said.

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Dale Rhodes became known for the coloured linings they put into suits and Mr Rhodes uses the term “viral” to describe how one lawyer told another and his reputation spread.

“I was one of the first tailors to put coloured linings in and this caught on, one lawyer would show another and they would contact me,” he said.

He currently has three “travelling tailors” who visit clients and another five people working in the factory.

He says the cost of having a high street presence is too prohibitive, but finds that clients are happy to visit the workshop or be visited by one of his travelling tailors.