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WORKWEARIn 1968 we acquired Wm Sugden & Sons Limited, a large clothing manufacturer from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, who had historically been a key supplier of work wear and jeans. This took us into a whole new area of the clothing market. Over time, our successful polyester/cotton fabric was incorporated into the workwear range and proved an instant success with consumers.The jeans were made of strong blue denim and were sold under the brand name Jet, available in a number of styles and sizes. The power of our existing brand and reputation, along with new TV advertising campaigns helped to develop the Jet brand into another successful division of our business.With the ongoing success of the core Double TWO products along with an expanding workwear range and jeans division, we acquired L J & M Refson Limited, a women’s workwear manufacturer from Sunderland.3 MILLION SHIRTSBy the end of the 1980s a group holding company was formed called ‘The Wakefield Shirt Company’, owning Double TWO Ltd, Wm Sugden & Sons Ltd and L J & M Refson Ltd along with a number of other smaller businesses acquired over the years.

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As a group of companies we were now employing over 1,500 people across six factories and selling over 3,000,000 shirts per year in over 40 countries.To this day Double TWO continues to produce quality men’s and women’s shirts as well as formal and casual wear. Wm Sugdens continuesas the corporate arm of the business, producing quality career and workwear uniforms.NEW AVENUES…By 1993 the independent clothing shop and even the smaller department store groups that had formed the bulk of our customer base, had started to decline under the onslaught of ‘own label chains’ such as Next, Marks & Spencer and The Arcadia Group.In response Isaak and Richard Donner planned to launch their own retail chain. Earlier experiments on the High Street had proved unprofitable, but a highly successful American retail concept was just getting started in the UK.The success of the Freeport ‘Brands For Less’ concept in the USA led us to join Sean Collidge, in launching the innovation in the UK. We opened stores at all 6 of his ‘Freeport’ sites. Along with our own products, we added suitable concession brands and soon developed our retail footprint to 23 stores nationwide, supported by a large number of concessions in mill shops and department stores.In 1994, we were also approached by David Gummery and Chris Lockwood with the idea of developing mini clothing department stores, on an outlet basis but not necessarily on outlet sites. With garden centres and entertainment parks proving to be the most robust locations, ‘Leading Labels Limited’ was formed in partnership with ‘The Wakefield Shirt Company’ with Double TWO shirts becoming a key product.