James follows the silk route to China

James Hare Silks, a 145-year-old textile importer and distributor of silks for interior design and fashion, has opened a showroom in China and is considering expansion into Eastern European countries.

One of the last remaining family-owned textiles firms in Leeds, James Hare's managing director said these new markets should help ensure the company's continuity.

"The Far East is our fastest-growing part of the world," said managing director Tim Hare, the fourth generation of the Hare family to run the business.

"That's where I see the growth. 2010 was a good year for us. China is growing enormously. They have got a huge amount of pent-up spending power there and they want all of the good things that come from increasing wealth.

"Russia is another export market that I've developed over the last seven or eight years."

The company has grown export trade to about a third of its turnover and as well as distributor tie-ups in America, it is considering expansion into Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

James Hare last year completed its biggest ever order – supplying a new 600-bedroom luxury hotel in Moscow with its silks. The 400,000 order has resulted in a flow of follow-up orders as the hotel continues to expand, plus orders from other interested developers in Russia.

The James Hare story nearly came to a halt in the early 1980s when the company "lost a lot of money" as competition eroded its earnings and its fabric shop customers struggled.

"We were trying to do a jack of all trades and it wasn't working," said Mr Hare. "We realised we had to do something quite severe in order to stay in textiles, or move out of textiles and rely on our property business.

"We decided we would have one last gasp to keep the business going."

With the company making more margin on silk than other fabrics, it decided to return to its roots and focus on selling silks to dress makers, rather than fabric shops.

"We sensed that (the bridal wear market) was not quite so price sensitive as other parts of the market and there was very little competition," said Mr Hare.

"The new word in the 1980s was specialisation."

The turnaround began to take effect, and by the mid-1980s, it had built up its range for the fashion market, and was specialising in supplying bridal wear makers.

In the late 1990s, it diversified into supplying silks for interior design, ranging from curtains to cushions and wall coverings.

Today its site in Queen Street, central Leeds, stocks up to 1,500 lines of silk. Most of its silks are woven in China, India and Thailand, with the yarns sourced from China. Customers order lengths ranging from five metres to more than 100 metres.

From selling nothing to the interior trade in the 1990s, the sector now makes up half its revenues. The company exhibits at leading trade fairs, and in 2009 it introduced silk wall coverings and fire retardant materials.

In 2008 it also opened in the dress fabric department of John Lewis in Oxford Street, London.

This year will see the company continue to invest in its website and range.

In 2012 it plans to launch new sheer silks and add to its collection of plain silks.

Mr Hare said business is profitable, and revenues grew seven per cent to 3.5m in 2010.

He added the company has seen little impact from the recession, owing to its diverse markets.

"Quite the opposite, last year was a really good year for us," he said. "We were getting a lot of new customers."

Mr Hare, the great grandson of the company's founder, said the family-owned nature of the business has been key to its continuity. His niece, Saffron, is its sales director, and his son, Charlie, is also a director, running its property development business. The company employs 23 staff.

From roots in the revolution

James Hare Silks has its roots in the Industrial Revolution, when Yorkshire was home to a thriving textiles industry.

The company was founded in 1865 when James Hare set up as a merchant of woollens and worsteds from a cottage in Leeds.

By 1891, the company had grown into one of the largest fabric wholesalers in Britain specialising in woollens and worsteds for the tailoring trade

In 1913, the company started to manufacture cloth with seven looms. By 1935, two million metres of fabric were being dispatched annually from James Hare's warehouse.

In the 1950s, the company concentrated on the export trade, opening offices in Canada and Germany.

It closed its mill in 1966, selling its looms to the Nigerian government.

In the 1980s, it decided to focus on stocking bridal and fashion dress makers, and in 1999, it moved into the interior design sector.