Xamax undergoes rapid expansion

CLOTHING manufacturer Xamax is embarking on ambitious growth plans with a £400,000 factory investment and 40% increase in sales.

The Wakefield-based workwear and promotional clothing manufacturer has increased its sales by 40% in just 12 months and its investment has helped it to update its Roundwood Industrial Estate site.

Xamax tapped into support from the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) to help it understand new market opportunities and support its growth plans.

It is an approach that has paid off, with turnover rising to £3.3m and five new jobs created to cope with demand.

Operations director, Gareth Thompson, said: “The banking crisis made us look long and hard at our business and where we wanted to go. A lot of the changes we were making were reactive to market conditions and we knew we needed to adopt a more proactive approach.

“Using industry specific roadmaps we have come up with a strategic plan to take us to 2017. We’ve already secured shop-floor efficiencies and a 40% increase in sales.

“Working with MAS, we were able to take a step back and look at the bigger picture and the sort of processes we needed to put in place to monitor growth and, importantly, profitability.”

Xamax is a manufacturer of embroidered and printed clothing for business, local authorities and the general public, working for more than 10,000 clients.

The company, which employs 43 people, produces more than 500 different items, ranging from t-shirts and sweatshirts to hi-vis jackets and footwear.

Mr Thompson said: “MAS has been a tremendous source of expertise and knowledge, as was Krys Szokalo of the ICE Partnership who worked so closely with us on shaping our strategy.

“We now have a solid platform that will ensure the business flourishes and hopefully creates more jobs in the future.”

Stephen Gregory, team leader for MAS in Yorkshire and Humber, said: “Xamax is an ambitious company with a massive customer base of more than 10,000 clients. What we’ve been able to do is introduce a number of best practice techniques that has helped the management team add greater structure to its long-term plans.

“Turnover has increased dramatically and there is no reason why it can’t reach £5m in annual sales by 2017.”