Field Report Dressing up


The past decade has seen a dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of Team Colours. Managing Director Rosemary Carter has radically changed the core manufacturing portfolio to produce bespoke sports kit and teamwear, and the family-run business continues to grow


T


he history of Team Colours is a story born out of adversity, in which Rosemary Carter was asked to produce an updated outfit for a local netball team – a somewhat different direction for the company at the time.


“We were manufacturing products for the elderly and infirm for the big mail-order companies - items such as incontinence pads,” explains Carter. “If you think back to 20 years ago, people ordered these products through mail order – they did not want everyone to know they used them. But today there is not that stigma attached and you can quite easily go out and buy such products over the counter.


The future’s bright: Team Colours offers a bespoke service to women’s football teams


“As with most manufacturing


businesses, the mail order companies resourced more and more of their goods from the Far East, so we had to find a new niche market to avoid going under. At the time my interest was


netball, and


someone had come to us with an idea: they had seen girls in Australia playing netball in dresses


rather than the


traditional pleated skirts


12 SGB SPORT JULY 2010


There are now more women playing football than netball. We currently have a new range of ladies’ football teamwear – we are looking to make the kit a little more feminine


“


and polo shirts. They asked us to produce our version of these dresses - which we did for a local team – and they loved them.


”


“We found that people started thinking these dresses looked much better, so it became something of a fashion item. I’m not saying that we completely transformed netball fashion in the UK, but we were certainly a big leader in setting the trend.”


Over the past ten years netball has been the core product in the Team Colours portfolio, yet the influx of cheaper imports again threatened Carter’s company, and it became a big challenge for Team Colours to maintain its healthy market share.


“Our main competitor is in China,” says Carter, “but we don’t have many rivals who are producing to the same quality that we do, or provide the same service. We are also part of a European project called ‘Servive’, which supports and funds specialist manufacturing within the EU. We actually manufacture most of our products on site, and now when we do need to import material, say for our netball dresses, then we get it from Italy.


“We have also looked at using other new fabrics which are made and dyed in the UK, and which are better value options. Price has been an issue because the Chinese could undercut us by almost half, but now the price of these fabrics allows us to compete. That has helped us, but the main reason we have succeeded is because


Colour code: Rosemary Carter, managing director of Team Colours


of our bespoke service. The ability to fulfil orders of whatever size or specification has always been our strongpoint.”


Encouraged by its success, Team Colours expanded the range of its teamwear and leisurewear garments to include custom-made polo shirts and many other items which have proved popular with corporate clients.


Following football


Meanwhile, the website features garments and equipment for a number of other sports besides netball - from rugby and hockey to basketball and cricket - but the particular area where Carter is now focusing is women’s football.


“Following on from our success with netball, we looked into other sports,” she says. “We are now involved in ladies’ football – a significant move as there are now more women playing football than netball. We currently have a new range of ladies’ football teamwear – we are looking to make the kit a little more feminine where other brands offer a baggier style - and we are also giving people the option to design their own kit.”


Team Colours has come a long way from the days of manufacturing articles for the elderly and infirm, and like all businesses, the company has had to battle through the recession. But it still continues to show the signs of a healthy enterprise, and one that will definitely remain in the family.


“We have grown as a business, and whereas other companies have made redundancies, we have continued to take on staff – so that is a plus,” says Carter. “We have also purchased new machinery to help keep us competitive. We are a healthy business, and also a family business. I started with my father Stanley, and now my two daughters, Sara and Lucy work here, so I could never think of selling it. It is more a matter of building long-term for my daughters’ future and for that of their children.”


S www.team-colours.co.uk


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