Heartbroken!

On Wednesday evening the building we share caught fire as a result of a lithium ion battery explosion in part of the premises occupied by another business.

Due to the very intense nature of the fire it’s spread throughout large parts of the building and still today firefighters are bravely tackling areas to which the fire has reached & beyond.

The part of the building which we occupy is at the furthest point from the fire, (see picture above), and while the building remains evacuated, and will be for quite some time, we envisage significant damage from smoke & water as a best case scenario & at worst, the total loss of product, raw materials & machinery.

Thankfully there are no casualties or injuries at all, in large part due to swift evacuation & the lightning response by the incredible emergency services.

To say we’re all heartbroken is an enormous understatement, many tears are being shed by our wonderful colleagues as we painfully watch events unfold. The helplessness & futility is palpable and delayed shock is now also playing its part.

In the forthcoming days we’ll hopefully know more, the task of assessing the damage & the process of formulating a plan to put the company back together again.

This is not the end, …it’s a new beginning!

We’re incredibly fortunate that our sister factory, which we established 18 months ago, is on hand to continue production once we’ve managed to replaced our fabrics, trims & other raw materials but even so this simply can’t be done overnight. In addition, our inventory of finished stock & order fulfilment is all held & dispatched from here in Middleton, so from this perspective it’s likely going to be our ‘ground zero’!

Anyone who’s placed an order since Wednesday will have already been personally contacted by phone and refunds are being issued. We’ve also removed all products from our online store as a temporary measure so new orders can’t be placed.

We’re all completely devastated right now and just the thought of the work ahead is frankly stomach churning but we’ve never shied away from hard work so we’ll be back as soon as circumstances allow.

Materials, garments & machinery are all replaceable, it’s the small sentimental, irreplaceable things accumulated over 90 years of manufacturing, that keep coming to mind and we just pray that some of these may have miraculously survived.

Right now, we envisage a slow, limited re-introduction of our collections as they begin to come through production and we’d like to thank everyone for your devoted support not only during this traumatic time but equally as important over all the years you’ve stuck by us.

We’ll keep you updated as soon as we understand the situation better & things become clearer. We must retain focus & remember that there are people in this world who are experiencing far more dire issues, emotions & hardship.

‘What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger’

Love & best wishes to all.

💔