Skopes aims to capitalise on China taste for luxury fashion

The third generation family-owned company, whose clients include Harrods, Jaeger, and High and Mighty, hopes to double turnover to more than 15m with a major push into China's luxury market.

Suits with 24 carat gold and platinum woven into the pinstripe are already being sold to Chinese businessmen for 10,000 and the firm is inventing new luxurious fabrics, including material woven with ground precious gems, to add to the collection.

Simon Cope, managing director and chairman of Newross Impex, which owns the Skopes Menswear brand, said: "The opportunities in China are mind blowingly huge. The number of millionaires and billionaires is breathtaking. If you've got a brand in the UK and you can show you have foundations, the Chinese will love you. They want to buy into western brands but they have got to know there is a foundation there."

The company appointed commercial manager Malcolm Campbell in June this year to grow the Chinese business.

Initially, the firm plans to sell suits to tailors in Beijing but is also looking to launch its own retail outlets, trading through a holding company with the help of its Chinese partner, Chen Hong Mei.

Mr Campbell said: "A big part of what we're doing is about education, talking to businesses about the history of the company and introducing the team. We have also taught them how to educate their own customers on the history of wool because a lot of people have lost the ability to explain what textiles is all about."

Skopes is planning to increase its export business from 10 per cent to 40 per cent. The company plans to differentiate itself by creating new and innovative fabrics to appeal to wealthy Chinese businessmen. "We are looking at a blend of science and nature," said Mr Campbell. "The fibres are all natural but we're using marino wool, cashmere, alpaca, angora and vicuna, coupled with blends that are almost outrageously luxurious to appeal to that specific market. We're also looking at micro-incapsulating silver into the cloth, water resistant fabric and stain repellency."

The history of the garment is almost as important as the garment itself. "We come up with a marketing story for customers to show the journey the garment has made," said Mr Campbell. "The Chinese will give gifts of suits at 10,000 and they love stories. If there's a story there the gift is so much better."

Skopes, which was founded by Mr Cope's grandfather Sydney in 1948, buys cloth from the UK, Europe and Asia. Clothes are then manufactured in Europe and Asia, although its luxury range is only made from British cloth and manufactured in Europe.

The business, based in a 30,000 sq ft warehouse in Cross Green, is split into four divisions. The firm's wholesale division sells to about 700 retail accounts, while the corporate side supplies uniforms for the likes of BAA, John Lewis and the House of Commons. There is also a mail order division.

The retail side, which forms 50 per cent of the business, supplies high street retailers but the company is hoping to roll out a series of stand-alone stores after trialling two shops in Wigan and Coventry. It also has concessions in 20 House of Fraser stores.

Mr Cope said: "There is a shortfall on menswear on the high street. If our two stores work we will open 15 to 20 across the UK. There are some great deals to be had on premises but we are very careful not to hurt our independent business."

Skopes is in the difficult position of trying to take a larger share of a shrinking textiles market and Mr Campbell admits it isn't easy. The firm is constantly coming up with new ideas, including a new Sydney Cope Collection and a Made to Measure project as well as expanding its range of women's clothing.

He said: "Price deflation is what has destroyed the innovation and development of good quality Yorkshire cloths. In the Nineties, cloth was sold to high street retailers for 7/8 a metre. Today those cloths are 4.50/5 a metre. That's why there's no mills left in Yorkshire."

He added: "We believe that we can work with the remaining mills to market textiles in the way they should be marketed and start to develop new cloths, complicated cloths, and cloths that have got technical and scientific applications to them, together with a marketing story that can appeal to the consumer."

Making move into new markets

Skopes Menswear was founded in Leeds in 1948 by Sydney Cope.

His son, Geoffrey, joined the Skopes brand in the Sixties at a time when the market required faster fashion. He developed a ready-to-wear line of men's clothing that was accessible to all.

Simon Cope, grandson of the founder, took over the family business in 1987 and began to develop new market areas which supplied casual wear and accessories to a new younger audience.

The Skopes range, which comprises three divisions of retail, corporate and wholesale, includes suits, jackets, trousers, shirts, coats and accessories for men as well as corporte-wear for women.