Made in Leeds: Behind the scenes of the official VE DAY 80 flag makers

Current head of business Philip Thompson is the third generation of his family to run the business. "The company was actually founded by my grandfather’s scout master, funded by my great grandmother,” says Philip whose mother and brother also make up the ten strong team.

"When my grandfather came to the age of 14 and was leaving school he was directed by his mother into the business – he wanted to be a horticulturalist but she had other ideas and so he got flags instead. We are still very much a family business.”

JW Plant has always been based in Leeds and its manufacturing process has moved with the times from cut and sewn flags, handpainted flags and then into screen printing and now into digital printing. Today, JW Plant combines tradition with a modern innovative approach to development and manufacture, says Philip.

But history is still an important part of their ethos and although some older records have been lost, Philip says the company does have copies of orders place in the 1930s.

"A lot of the flags were national flags and also flags for shipping companies – we still have a record of a London -based company Arthur Beales and they used to supply ensigns and hardware for boats and ships.”

A large part of their work over the years has been for the military working for the Ministry of Defense.

"We had an old Union flag crop up on Guernsey several years ago which we now have here in Leeds dated from 1940. We have no idea how it ended up in Guernsey or what it was used for.- it looked military in its format,” says Philip.

"We have also managed to date some ensigns that have been used on South Atlantic convoys during World War II. “ It is apt then that they got the contract to make the official flags to mark 80 years since the end of the war in Europe.

“More recently we have done flags for Royal pageants and have built up a relationship with the official pageantmaster Bruno Peek. We’ve done flags for the Jubilees in the past and also for the King Charles’s Coronation a couple of years ago and also for the funeral of the late Queen.

"Bruno, who is very old school when it come to organising things like this, puts together a programme to commemorate significant events which he wants the country to get behind. He came up with the idea of the Raising the Flag ceremony where he wants everyone to raise a flag on VE Day and also the lighting of the beacons which was also big during the jubilee.

"He’s also come up with special pieces of music and he had the VE Day 80 flag designed. Because we have a relationship with him going back over the years he asked us if we’d like to be involved in the manufacture of the flags.” They were first approached in September last year to make the flags which people can buy from a specially set up website (ve80.com)

More than 500 VE Day 80 flags have been made by the Leeds company which have been digitally printed onto fabric and then stitched around the edges by their seven sewing machinists.

The Union flag is the background to the official flag with a badge in the middle with VE Day 80 surrounded by poppies.

"Because of the badge element in the middle if we had cut and sewn the flags we would have had to print the badge element separately and stitch each individual one in place which would have had a cost and time implications,” explains Philip.

"Also you don’t know who many you are going to need or in what size. Digital lends itself to that because it is flexible and you can add them almost straight into production once you receive the order.”

While digitally produced flags are popular in the commercial sector where price is a major factor, Philip says there is still a demand for the more traditional way of working and their order book is a mix of the two.

Digitally printed flags is a flooded market – any signs company with a digital printer can make them – but Philip maintains that there is still a gulf between those and what they offer.

“There are differences within digital printing if the customer takes the time to research it,” he says. “There are different ink set ups that are specifically designed for polyester so there is digital printing and there is digital printing. We work to the highest quality.”

JW Plant also has the contract with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development office for all their overseas posts making all the diplomatic flags which means their flags are in every country where there is an embassy.

“The diplomatic flag has the Governmental Royal Coat of Arms in the centre in a wreath and historically those central items would have been screen-printed but you have very intricate design on there. The advent of digital meant you could print that element of the flag in much greater detail and at a much higher resolution and then stitch that to the flag in the same way as if it had been screen-printed. And then you can still use on the background a traditional sewn Union Jack,” Philip explains.

“But there is still demand for the cut and sewn flags. We have very good contacts in and around London who deal with all sorts of Government work so there is still lots of work to do on the sewn side such as government state visits. We also do a lot of regimental flags for the military where they may just want one or two but they want them done a certain way.”

The trickiest flags to make tend to be the bigger ones.

"We have some Union flags going through at the moment that are 12m by 6.25m that were originally made and then cancelled due to Covid. We are now having to change the fixings which is a challenge because of the sheer amount of material.”

Philip says he is always proud when he sees one of JW Plants flags at an important event like Thursday VE Day 80 celebrations.

"It gives me immense pride and pleasure. One of the most pleasureable ones was the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with the Thames River pageant as we made all the flags that went on the official boats within the pageant.

"And then there was the King’s Coronation. We make flags for other people so you don’t always know where they are going to end up but we had the flags on the standards carried by the heralds that followed the King down the procession in Westminster Abbey. That was a very proud moment.”