Coats Group

Coats Group plc
Company typePublic limited company
IndustryConsumer and intermediate goods
Founded1755; 269 years ago (1755)
HeadquartersLondon, England, UK
Key people
David Gosnell[1] Chairman
Rajiv Sharma, CEO
Jackie Callaway, CFO
ProductsTextile related
RevenueDecrease US$1,394.2 million (2023)[2]
Increase US$233.4 million (2023)[2]
Increase US$74.1 million (2023)[2]
Websitewww.coats.com

Coats Group plc is a British multinational company. It is the world's largest thread and structural components' manufacturer for apparel, footwear, and performance materials. Founded over 250 years ago, the UK-based company has operations across 50 countries with a workforce of over 17,000 employees.

The company provides products, including apparel, accessory and footwear threads, structural components for footwear and accessories, fabrics, yarns, and software applications.

Coats is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index and FTSE4Good Index. Revenues in 2022 were $1.6bn.

Founding

Ferguslie Thread Mills

Paisley, Scotland became a hub for the textile industry in the United Kingdom. In 1755 James and Patrick Clark began a loom equipment and silk thread business.[3] In 1806 ,Patrick Clark invented a way of twisting cotton together to substitute for silk that was unavailable due to the French blockade of Great Britain. He opened the first plant for manufacturing the cotton thread in 1812.[3]

1887 chromolithograph advertisement for J & P. Coats Best Six Cord thread

In 1802 James Coats set up his own weaving in Paisley. In 1826 he opened a cotton mill at Ferguslie to produce his own thread[4] and, when he retired in 1830, his sons, James & Peter, took up the business under the name of J. & P. Coats.[4]

In 1890 Coats listed on the London Stock Exchange,[4] with capital of £5.7 million.[4]

Implantation in the United States

The firm expanded internationally, particularly to the United States. In 1869, J. & P. Coats signed a contract with the Conant Thread Company in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, which entitled them to use of the Conant company’s manufacturing facilities.[5] This move towards local production in the United States was primarily driven by high tariffs on imported goods, including thread.[5]

In 1893, J. & P. Coats absorbed the Conant Thread Company and assumed direct control over the Pawtucket plant, under the management of James Coats (1834–1913) and Alfred M. Coats (1869–1942).[5] In 1896 J. and P. Coats acquired controlling interests in the firms of Clark and Co, Jonas Brook and Brothers, and James Chadwick and Brother.[6] The Clark family had manufacturing sites in Newark, New Jersey, U.S. as the Clark Thread Co. since 1864.[3]

J & P Coats moved their base of operations to Delaware in 1951 and officially closed the plant in Pawtucket in November of 1964.[7]

Mergers and Consolidation

In 1952 J. & P. Coats and the Clark Thread Co. merged to become Coats & Clark's.[8] In 1961 a merger with Patons and Baldwins created Coats Patons.[4] In 1986 a merger with Vantona Viyella created Coats Viyella.[9] In 2003 Guinness Peat took Coats private and in 2015 the business returned to the market as "Coats Group".[10]

Coats was fined €110 million by the European Commission in 2007 for participation in cartels with Prym, YKK, and other companies to fix and manipulate the prices of zips and other fasteners, and of the machinery to make them. One of the cartels ran for twenty-one years. An appeal in 2012 to the General Court of the European Union was dismissed, and the fine upheld.[11][12]

The company acquired the footwear components business, Texon, in July 2022,[13] and the footwear reinforcement components business, Rhenoflex, in August 2022.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Coats Group appoint David Gosnell as new Chairman". Directors Talk. 24 November 2020. Retrieved 14 June 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "Annual Results 2023" (PDF). Coats. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  3. ^ a b c "History". Coats. Archived from the original on 28 June 2012. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Records of Coats Viyella plc, thread manufacturers, Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland". Archived from the original on 2012-07-19. Retrieved 2009-02-03.
  5. ^ a b c Kim, Dong-Woon (1998). "The British multinational enterprise in the United States before 1914: The case of J. & P. Coats". Business History Review. 72 (4): 523–551.
  6. ^ "Clark and Co (of Paisley)". Grace's Guide To British Industrial History, quoting "The Stock Exchange Year Book 1908". Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  7. ^ "Coats and Clark (Conant Thread Mill Complex, Later J. and P Coats Ltd)". Society of Architectural Historians. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
  8. ^ "A spool of machine embroidery thread from Clark & Co's Anchor Mills in Paisley". Roots. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  9. ^ "Coats Pensions chairman Dow steps down". IPE. 9 August 2005. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  10. ^ "Ron Brierley resigns from Coats". New Zealand Herald. 20 April 2015.
  11. ^ Aoife White (27 June 2012). Coats and YKK Lose EU Court Challenges Over Antitrust Fines. Bloomberg. Accessed March 2015.
  12. ^ Judgment of the General Court (Third Chamber) of 27 June 2012. Coats Holdings Ltd v European Commission. Competition – Agreements, decisions and concerted practices – Markets for zip fasteners and ‘other fasteners’ – Decision finding an infringement of Article 81 EC – Coordinated price increases, fixing of minimum prices, customer-sharing, market-sharing and exchange of other commercial information – Evidence – Single and continuous infringement – Limitation period – Rights of the defence – Fines – Guidelines. Case T-439/07. Accessed March 2015.
  13. ^ "Coats acquires Texon as athleisure footwear market booms". Fashion Network. 6 July 2022. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
  14. ^ "Coats acquires Rhenoflex to strengthen footwear presence". Just Style. 11 August 2022. Retrieved 10 April 2023.

Further reading

  • Coats, Brian (2013). Seams Sewn Long Ago. The Story of Coats The Threadmakers. CreateSpace. ISBN 978-1490408262.
  • Kim, Dong-Woon (Autumn 1994). From a Family Partnership to a Corporate Company: J. & P. Coats, Thread Manufacturers. Vol. 25. Textile History. pp. 185–225.
  • Kim, Dong-Woon (Winter 1998). The British multinational enterprise in the United States before 1914: The case of J. & P. Coats. Vol. 72. Business History Review. pp. 523–52.
  • Kim, Dong-Woon (Winter 1995). J. & P. Coats in Tsarist Russia, 1889–1917. Vol. 69. Business History Review. pp. 465–494.
  • Kininmonth, Kirsten W. (October 2006). The growth, development and management of J. & P. Coats Ltd, c.1890–1960: An analysis of strategy and structure. Vol. 48. Business History. pp. 551–579.
  • Knox, William W. (1995). Hanging by a Thread: The Scottish Cotton Industry, c. 1850–1914. Carnegie. ISBN 978-1859360118.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Coats Group.
  • Official website
  • Works by Coats and Clark at Faded Page (Canada)
  • Documents and clippings about Coats Group in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
  • Boston Public Library Thread Trade Cards Collection
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