How Squid Game-inspired fashion is helping to grow a Northallerton business

When Howard Gill decided he needed a new career after 28 years in the transport industry, he decided to turn to ecommerce and now focuses on fast fashion, writes Lizzie Murphy.

If you haven’t already seen Squid Game then the chances are you’re sick of hearing about it but over 142 million fans can’t get enough of the hit Netflix show.

Searches for white numbered T-shirts, like those worn by the show’s contestants, have seen a huge increase and the dystopian drama proved to be a huge source of inspiration for Halloween costumes this year.

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It’s because of this demand that, in a warehouse on a business park in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, there is a stack of boxes full of blank white T-shirts, ready to be turned into Squid Game-inspired merchanise.

Howard Gill, managing director of CTS UK. Picture: Simon HulmeHoward Gill, managing director of CTS UK. Picture: Simon Hulme
Howard Gill, managing director of CTS UK. Picture: Simon Hulme

Reactive fashion is a growing division for e-fulfilment business CTS UK, which also makes workwear and personal protective equipment, and managing director Howard Gill is excited about its potential.

The move will direct the company into a more flexible business, he says, giving it the ability to tap into new trends instantly without having to order and keep lots of stock.

“We’re already on Etsy and Amazon and we’re looking to work with other retailers as we start to develop our own products designed in-house,” he says.

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“We’ll have a base of about 50 core products that will be there all-year round but as things become fashionable overnight, we can react and put that on a sweatshirt or hoodie the next morning.

“A white T-shirt is a white T-shirt until we tell it otherwise.”

He adds: “Squid Games started and within two days we had numbered T-shirts for sale on Etsy. We want to tap into that reactive market further.”

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The firm, which was founded last year, has just installed a new direct-to-garment printing machine in its warehouse, ready for the Christmas rush.

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The machine that staff are currently using is on loan while Gill waits for two machines he has bought to arrive - they are stuck in Singapore.

Once the two new machines are installed, an investment of £100,000, CTS UK will have the capacity to print 300 T-shirts an hour.

Gill, who joined the company last May, says: “This way of working drives stock out of the system. It also drives cost out for the supplier as well as for the customer because we’re not having to sit on 10,000 different T-shirts with different designs, waiting for the sale.

“We only want to stock a white T-shirt in six sizes that we can then customise.”

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Retail is currently 60 per cent of the business with workwear and PPE accounting for 20 per cent each.

Gill hopes that the growth in the retail division will offset some of the shipping issues it has encountered recently after experiencing delays from some of its workwear products arriving from China and Bangladesh.

“We’ve got plans to change this process. I’ve only been here since May. We’ve done a lot but we’ve got a lot to do,” he says.

Workwear is shipped from the Far East and then branded at the firm’s Northallerton headquarters using embroidery and vinyl techniques.

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It’s still a busy side of the business with its embroidery staff completing about 750 garments a day for the likes of Sports Direct, Eddie Stobart, Heck and Bunzl.

“In the past the business has been focused on doing it quick but we’re investing in quality and more checks, taking our time and making sure that the product is right first time,” says Gill.

“We’d rather take an extra day to make sure it’s right. In the past there’s been a desire to just get it out but we can’t do that any more. It has to be right first time.”

Yorkshire-born Gill is tasked with organising and growing the three divisions of the business.

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There is an ambitious five-year plan to reach £50m turnover - a huge jump from £6m this year - but Gill is up for the challenge.

“We’ve got a lot of things to build on. We’re starting to assemble a great team, recruiting as we go along,” he says.

After a 28-year career in transport and warehousing, most recently as chief logistics officer at Luton-based SH Pratt Group (Kinship Logistics), he was headhunted to become managing director of CTS UK by its founder and chief executive AJ Swinbank.

“I was looking to do something different. I didn’t know what it was, but when you’ve done the same thing for that long, you just fancy a change,” Gill says.

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CTS, which was born out of another workwear company owned by Swinbank, was looking to grow and needed someone to organise the business.

“I was helping AJ with the warehouse layout and he asked if I fancied coming over to CTS,” Gill says.

“I took the decision that I’m 50 next year and if I don’t try something different now, I’m going to do the same thing until I’m 75,” he adds.

While Swinbank focuses on the sales side of the business, Gill says his skills lie on the operations side

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He describes himself as ‘firm but fair’ and someone who ‘likes a process’.

“I love a plan,” he says. “Organisation and structure is something that we’re still developing here right through the business, so that will continue.”

He was inspired during his early career by ice cream entrepreneur James Lambert, who became his boss after leaving college, and later on, Gill left college, and Garry Tilburn and Tom Cassells at Reed Boardall.

“I’d say these three people shaped my career,” he says. “In their areas of expertise I’d put them at the top.”

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Outside of work, the married father-of-two, who lives in Crakehall, North Yorkshire, recently took up running. “I’ve just passed the 500km mark since I started in May,” he says.

He also enjoys dog walking with his two dogs, age 11 and eight, something he’s been able to do more of since the career switch.

However, despite his desire to move into a new industry, Gill admits it’s taken him a while to adjust to his new working patterns.

“In transport, your phone’s on 24-hours a day, seven days a week and it never ever stops,” he says.

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“Whereas here, at first I found it really odd that on a weekend my phone didn’t ring at all.

“In the first three or four months I wondered what was going on and if my phone was broken.

“It’s a different entity but it’s enjoyable.”

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James Mitchinson