Sophie Glover is studio manager at Makers HQ, a community interest company on Union Street in Plymouth. Makers HQ is bringing textile manufacturing back to the old Jaeger factory that closed on the site in 1997, offering sampling services to designers and training to people out of work in the Stonehouse area of the city.
What do you do?
I am Sophie Glover and I run Makers HQ. We’re trying to reignite manufacturing in Plymouth, build a talent pool, and give opportunities for graduates and people in the South West to stay and work here.
What is the point of the project?
Stonehouse is an area [of Plymouth] that needs a huge amount of love. It needs opportunities for people to raise their aspirations. We know 50 per cent of families here live below the poverty line, we know 37 per cent of families here are on the third-generation of claiming benefits, so there is a legacy of low expectations.
If you go back – not very far – to the seventies, Stonehouse and Union Street was a hub of fabulousness. People came here because there was work, because there was industry. Particularly because of textiles and the dockyards there were skilled jobs. In the eighties and nineties, retailers started taking their manufacturing offshore. The dockyards closed, the old Jaeger factory here closed. This factory shut in 1997 and about 300 people were made redundant. And the next day two big containers turned up, loaded 600 machines onto it and shipped it off to Indonesia and that was that.
The DNA of these walls are in skills, manufacturing, pattern cutting and stitching.
The DNA of these walls are in skills, manufacturing, pattern cutting and stitching. We’re trying to honour that heritage and to reignite it.
We can see that UK manufacturing is on an upwards trajectory – for loads of reasons, and the Coronavirus is the latest one of them. People are looking closer to home for their stuff. They are looking at the carbon footprint of the goods they buy, the conditions for the workers. More and more people are looking to invest in something better and it’s generating this desire for products onshore again.
The problem that we have is that there are no skilled workers any more. We have been relying on workers from the EU that aren’t coming anymore because of Brexit.
When was the moment you decided to do this?
Roger Pipe, chief executive of Millfields Trust, and Andrew Brewerton, principle of Plymouth College of Art, were at a drinks party and got talking about how the college was churning out graduates who were all leaving for London. They started to think about what they could do to support those designers who want to start a clothing brand. Roger said he was based in the old Jaeger clothing factory. He wanted to hear the whir of sewing machines again.
“We have to realise that actually, if you want quality, you have to pay for it.” https://t.co/6YCiCzCl5i @HqMakers@peoplesbiz
— hazelsheffield (@hazelsheffield) March 23, 2020
So they set up a group of people from Millfields Trust and ex-Jaeger employees and came up with a business plan. Did a lot of feasibility studies to look into whether the South West could support a business in the textile industry. Overwhelmingly, the answer was yes.
In the business plan, they wanted to reach people with academic barriers who are creative. They said: “We need to teach people how to sew.”
The business plan has two sections: a training unit with courses for people that offers accredited qualifications, and a sampling studio, which offers product development and small production runs. People pay for our services by the hour and we charge a rate equivalent to the skill set of the person working on it – a bit like a hairdresser.
We opened in August of 2018. All of our business comes through Instagram. This building was constructed for the Jaeger brand, and we continue to respect the values of our ex-Jaeger employee community, who said they don’t want us to make £1 a pair leggings, so that means we have turned down business because to make a product beautifully you have to pay for it.
We have an open door policy, our costings are open and that’s so people can see how much it costs to make something. We’re a nation of consumers driven by price – but actually, if we want quality we have to pay for it.
What’s been your proudest moment so far?
My best one was Christmas, 2018. We did two evenings with the First Stonehouse scout group on their craft badge. So they came in, mostly boys, all teenagers, and we said right you’re going to make a personalised Christmas stocking. You’re going to design it and hand sew it.
In the first session they were so noisy, talking about Fortnite, there was a dabbing competition going on – we were exhausted. We were dreading the second session. And then the second session came around, and there was a moment where we taught them a running stitch.
After they got to work, I looked up, and there was silence. All these boys were suddenly engrossed in sewing. And I think for that moment we had tapped into the joy of making something – that can be a rare thing.
NEWS 🗞️| Great work from @HqMakers. The Plymouth-based fashion & textiles studio is supporting local health workers by making workwear for #COVID19 testing site ⬇️
— Power to Change (@peoplesbiz) April 14, 2020
What’s been hardest?
Cashflow is tricky. It’s hard for any business but for community interest companies it’s tougher because you have to do the right thing: the lowest paid member of staff earns over the living wage, everyone has a contract with paid holidays and benefits.
Our last grant from Power to Change has come in so we need a carefully planned budget. I have vacancies I can’t fill. So I know we’re going to have to train people.
Funding apprenticeships is a nightmare. There is such a desperate need for apprentices and there is just no funding for it. It’s a car crash. In 2017, the government changed the schemes into a levy and a non-levy where big companies paid into their own levy pot but the smaller companies had to draw down from a joint pot that has since dried up – so all the SMEs like me who need apprentices can’t get them.
I appreciate that the Government has had other things to work on over the last couple of years, mostly Brexit, but now in this Covid-19 pandemic, the Government are scrabbling around trying to find UK manufacturers to supply products to the NHS. No surprises, they are struggling because there is a very limited number of companies with trained staff. NHS fabrics are produced in China, and gowns and masks mostly come out of Egypt. Both of these pipelines are on hold, so the UK manufacturers need to step up. Wouldn’t it be great if once all of this is over the Government continues to support UK manufacturing and the development of its future talent pool.
What drives you when it gets hard?
In my nature I am very competitive and slightly anarchic. If someone says I can’t do something I am going to prove them wrong. I have visions of taking over the whole building some day.
I would like us to be the talent pool. I would like to be a feeder of skilled people. Most textile companies in the South West that we’ve spoken to don’t have time to train people. So we want to do that for them. I’d like to grow the sampling unit, and then set up a working factory with 40-50 people. The possibilities are endless.
The possibilities are endless.
What’s the next step?
My focus for the next 12 months is all about sustainability.
We were lucky we got a European Community Grant fund to deliver our programme for people who were unemployed. We were told to target women over 50, NEETs, those people furthest from education and employment. They are mums whose kids have gone and they need to go back to work for 25 years. They need a skill and we want to teach them.
Where does funding come from?
Power to Change, Plymouth City Council and we won the M&S Community Business Prize.
I have been part of the Rank Foundation’s Rise Trade-Up programme, which is a match programme of £15,000 over a three year period and networking with people running social enterprises. Everything else we have generated ourselves through trading.
Which funders have been most helpful and why?
The RISE Trade-Up programme has been important for me. The difference is the training and support that I have got. Being the boss of a social enterprise is a lonely place. You are managing down and managing up, and chief cook and bottle washer: the pinch point is you.
Having one day a month where I meet up with people in the same place as me has made me feel that I’m not alone. I know I have a group of nine people who I can pick up the phone and say do you have time for coffee. The support has significantly exceeded the cash.
Power to Change has been amazing. They took a punt on us as a business on the basis of a business plan that two years down the line isn’t right. But they obviously saw something that made us worth investing in. It was all about giving people a much needed break.
The Plymouth City Council has been very supportive. We’re turning into quite a cool creative city.
Will Brexit affect what you are doing?
I think it will. In a negative and a positive way: it’s a massive blow to the industry that skilled workers won’t come here but it will force us to upskill our own people.
It forces people to shop smarter. The fashion industry has a lot to answer for in the world of polluting and landfill. As prices go up consumers need to change their attitude and save up to buy something in the UK that costs a bit more and is made in the UK. While I voted to remain, I think more people in skilled work in the UK sounds fab. But we do rely heavily on stuff from the outside: leathers, certain fabrics, zips. If it means there is a demand for a country from the UK to set up a button factory then hurrah. But I expect demand will exceed supply for a bit.
Brexit will force us to upskill our own people
The skilled workers in this profession are an ageing population. Also I can relate to a 16-17 year old who don’t want to work in a factory, but there are skilled labourers in factories in the UK earning £18-20 per hour – it’s tricky to be dismissive of that.
What would you say to someone looking to do something similar?
There’s a lot to be said for networking. As a social enterprise enhancing and embracing your fellow entrepreneurs, it’s very hard work.
If you can get yourself in a local social entrepreneurs network, you find your people. People with good intentions like yourself. I report into a board and they are great. Mostly they guide me in my decision making, and support me to shape the business. Sometimes they just pat me on the back and feed me biscuits, but that’s fab too. I know that they are always there and supporting the business.
Don’t expect to be wealthy. It’s not a job you do for the money – it’s a job you do because it feels right.
