![]() ![]() What did you do to try and work things out? It all caught up with us in 2009, and the company went into two administrations within a year. ![]() And we never really got things working well, to be honest, and built up debts. We got Gaziano & Girling in at 2006 and had a section making their shoes for a few years, but when they got things going they opened up their own factory. At the same time our legendary Sales Director Richard Webb, who’d been with us since the 1980’s, retired. But for us at Sargent, going from 2,400 pairs a week down to a bit over 1,900 pairs per week was a huge blow, obviously. I think it was due to not being too sensitive should something happen to the one supplier they used, so I can understand that. Cause in 2002 or 2003, when we were making 2,400 pairs of shoes per week in the factory of which 3,400 pairs per month were for Bowen, they decided to change their strategy and use more manufacturers. We continued to produce Bowen shoes, and they became our major customer in the factory. In the mid 90’s Fernandez sold Bowen to the French Thierry brothers of Manfield, who later merged their companies under Manbow, who also have more brands than these two nowadays. Bowen was his first brand, and in the 80’s we started making shoes for them. We started collaborating with Marcos Fernandez in France, a shoe entrepreneur who is nowadays busy with Septieme Largeur and Orban’s, but who also has started Markowski, Emling and Bowen. As most other British shoe factories back then, the Sargent factory largely produced shoes for other brands. – Well, I think one should go back to the 1980’s to get the full picture. If we go back a bit, how did it all start? ![]() Much more on that below, we start the interview off further back in history, to understand all the ups and downs of the company the past decades, why they’ve done the business decisions they have, and much more.įor all us who have followed Alfred Sargent’s journey the past decades, it seems like it’s been a tough ride. We talked for almost an hour and I learned both what has happened with the Alfred Sargent brand and the inventory (details on this comes from another source though, the new owners of this is not anyone from the “original” Sargent), and about the fact that Paul has solved access to all the machinery and will continue to produce shoes in the same premises, starting already within a few weeks if all goes well. I set up a phone call with Paul Sargent, who is the fourth generation of Sargents who together with his brother Andrew has been part of the company since way, way back (Paul started in 1964, younger brother Andrew a bit later). They were more than happy to talk about the situation from their point of view, and talk about what is happening now and going forward. He found the article to be “impressively informative given the fact were not able to contact anyone from Alfred Sargent”, and explained that company representatives was cut off from all emails and social media once the company went into liquidation, hence no replies from them. Most importantly – this is not the end for the Rushden factory, Sargent will once again show that they are the phoenix bird of Northampton.Īfter the article I wrote on the liquidation last week, I was contacted by Alex Sargent, son to Paul Sargent and who worked at the Alfred Sargent company. The history of why the company ended up where they are, what will happen with the Alfred Sargent brand, and what will happen with the factory. In this large open-hearted interview with Paul Sargent, part-owner and Factory Manager at the now closed company, you’ll get answers to most of them. Many questions came up after the fact that the British shoe manufacturer Alfred Sargent have gone into liquidation went public. ![]()
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