Production

Over 25 years in the industry Andrew has worked at most areas on the “factory floor” in clothing manufacture and is currently employed as Faulty Goods Administrator at HOBBs Ltd.  Originally trained at the London College of Fashion attending the ‘ACFI ’Management course (Associate of the Clothing and Footwear Industry), he went on this course to get a firm grounding in the basics to enable him to join the ‘family business’.  He completed the ‘Part One’ of the course  (the first two years), and as the part two was based on specialising in a particular subject (such as work-study) to get a job in a ‘large Business’, he felt that he would be better off starting work at this stage.

He was formerly the director of Contessa Ltd, a small ‘dress and light clothing’ CMT manufacturer, specialising in unstructured garments.  The company was founded by his father in 1971 and used to work in the upper end of the market dealing with medium sized companies, and with some of the ‘Designer Labels’. The company finally succumbed to the harsh CMT environment, and was forced to close in September 2001 due to the rising costs and falling revenue, making it impossible to continue.

Andrew joined the London Fashion Forum (LFF) at the outset as, “I feel that if we do not make the effort to encourage the manufacturing side of the trade, and stem flow of work going overseas we could have little other than niche manufacturing left in this country.  If this is the case they will make it even more difficult for new designers to set up in the UK”.

“I have become involved in the project as I feel that because the ‘Trade’ is mainly made-up of small companies; it needs to have a ‘Voice’.   It is still a large employer, even if less so in manufacturing now, and needs to remain competitive.”

Andrew was nominated to become a “fellow” of the RSA (The royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers & Commerce) in 2004, for his “contribution to the British industry.”