Camira weaves its magic with sales record

The Camira Group, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, has already been involved in a number of high-profile schemes, such as the Leeds First Direct Arena and MediaCityUK, the home of the BBC in the North of England.

There’s a good chance you’re sitting on some of its fabric now, because it’s used by banks, bus, coach and rail firms.

Camira’s products are also used by the likes of Google, Apple, Adobe and Microsoft and it plans to increase its share of the US and Chinese market.

Camira achieved a record financial performance in 2013 on the back of sales to 69 countries.

Camira Group, which was founded in Huddersfield in 1974 as Camborne Fabrics, saw its annual sales reach £60.1m last year, an increase of 9.3 per cent on 2012, as the company consolidated its position as European market leader, and expanded in the North American and Asia Pacific markets.

The company sold 7.5 million metres of contract interior fabrics for use in corporate offices, universities, and on buses, coaches and trains, It ended the year with record operating profit of £5.3m, compared with £4.7m the year before.

Camira, which has its headquarters in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, also has 500,000 square feet of manufacturing facilities across sites in Huddersfield, Nottingham and Lithuania. It now sells more fabrics overseas than into its UK market.

Camira Group chairman and chief executive Steve Bullas said: “We have remained profitable throughout the recession and saw a very strong final quarter of 2013 which has continued into the first half of 2014. We have invested heavily in additional sales and marketing resource in key markets in the US and China, as well as in Germany and Poland, and closer to home, in the London design sector.

“We are now getting ready for another intense period of marketing activity, with trade exhibitions taking place from September in Berlin, Houston, Cologne and Birmingham, and a raft of exciting new product launches coming to market.”

The company’s largest market is mainland Europe, which is run from its European sales office near Stuttgart in Germany. This market contributes more than £24m turnover from sales in all 28 member countries of the European Union, as well as expanding new markets such as Turkey.

Turnover in North America rose by 12 per cent to £5.6m, while Asia Pacific increased by 25 per cent to £1.5m, as the company saw the results of its investment in a new showroom and sales staff in Shanghai, and a new distributor agreement covering Australia and New Zealand.

The North American market is poised for further growth following the recent move of Camira’s US distribution centre from Indianapolis to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the opening of its first US showroom in Chicago, targeting the interior architecture and design sector.

In 2013 the company sold more than two million metres of recycled fabrics, introduced its first closed loop fabrics made from its own recycled waste yarn, and expanded its collection of fibre fabrics made from harvested crops such as nettles and hemp.

Contract wins included an environmental wool-flax fabric for Marks & Spencer’s Plan A sofa, while the company’s latest innovation is a fabric made from recycled coffee sacks blended with wool.

One of the company’s most popular wool fabrics is made using the premium Laneve brand of traceable wool which includes a donation programme to support New Zealand’s endangered Hector’s Dolphin. A cheque for more than $10,000 was presented to the New Zealand Whale and Dolphin Trust last autumn.

Camira’s manufacturing base was also strengthened when it completed the acquisition of the Huddersfield-based wool yarn spinner Stork Brothers.