Material boost on the home front

Its heyday has long since passed but in 2011, the White Rose country still plays a part in clothing the nation.

One veteran entrepreneur from this region is helping some of his best-known names in high street fashion source their products in Britain and Europe without having to turn to the Far East. Now his firm is set to grow after winning a £1.2m finance facility from an upstart bank.

PDA Marketing will use the cash from new bank Aldermore to invest in technology such as lathe planning and design equipment.

The firm currently turns over £10m but wants to double this within five years. It has set about its expansion plans by opening an office in London, taking on a handful of staff in design, and adding more workers to its base in Holmfirth.

PDA, run by Phil Downing, organises the manufacture of outdoor and leisure clothing for upmarket names such as Barbour, Jaeger and John Lewis.

The firm acts as a middleman in the textile and engineering sectors by helping retailers get their products made in Britain and Eastern Europe to ensure quality is not sacrificed in the hunt for savings.

Its consultancy arm targets small and medium-sized manufacturers that want to grow or improve efficiency, and its offshore operation is to help British manufacturers to add products from EU countries without losing domestic jobs.

Mr Downing said: “A lot are made in China but I don’t like that. I would prefer to see things made in Europe, although I am not particularly European.

“We are trying to protect UK firms from the likes of China overtaking them.”

Some £9m of turnover comes from the manufacturing sector and about £1m from funding from the Manufacturing Advisory Service to help manufacturers.

PDA has not been badly hit by the slowdown in high street spending because demand has held up for brands like Barbour, which has a factory in South Shields and is best-known for its wax cotton jackets.

“Barbour is going from strength to strength. It is a massive success story and we have got our people at Barbour now and they aim to double their turnover.

“It is a bit of a mix but we are very very busy and we needed more finance to keep growing. The main reason is Barbour.”

Mr Downing said the cash injection will help them to expand and meet the demand from new clients.

“There are companies that we could not approach before because we could not finance the orders.

“Aldermore didn’t ask me to double the size of my personal guarantee in return for a modest increase in our credit limit, and the whole deal was agreed without any unnecessary delays.”

Andy Chaffer, business director at Connect Yorkshire, which put the firm in touch with Aldermore, said: “PDA Marketing is an excellent example of the type of company the Government hopes will drive an increase in private sector employment. With a strong order book, PDA was already taking advantage of the cashflow benefits that factoring delivers.”

Calvin Dexter, the Cleckheaton-based regional sales director at Aldermore, one of a clutch of new British banks to emerge after the credit crisis, said: “PDA Marketing had a solid track record, strong order book and impressive business plan for future expansion. It is now positioned to be able to take advantage of a growth in orders.”

Aldermore was set up in 2009 and is backed by private equity companies AnaCap and Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners. Earlier this month, it said that savers’ deposits stood at £716m at the end of March 2011, compared with £273m 12 months previously.

Aldermore said that its increase in deposits was allowing it to expand its lending to small businesses faster than expected.

Fabric for the future

PDA International is in talks with one of Britain’s best-known retailers over a new material it developed with a York fabric expert using nanotechnology.

The material, which is being patented, has been designed to be more comfortable for the person wearing it by retaining or rejecting heat depending on their body temperature.

Its structure means the lining and outer fabric are woven as one, with the addition of an internal wadding. This allows logos to be indelibly woven into the fabric. The markets for it will initially be upmarket major brands of ladies’, men’s and children’s outerwear.