DESIGNS ON A DIGITAL FUTURE


Graham & Brown shocked east Lancashire in August last year when it announced plans to shut its manufacturing site at India Mill in Blackburn, ending 75 years of wallpaper making there.


The company revealed it was moving the production of traditional wallcoverings to “strategic” manufacturing partners in Europe and said the closure of the factory, which was “no longer fit for purpose”, was in response to “changing customer demand”.


That change had seen the market for traditionally-manufactured wallpaper


contract. In contrast, the demand for more environmentally-friendly, design-led and digitally-printed products in the online retail channel had continued to rise.


And that was taking the company, founded in Blackburn by two friends Harold Graham and Henry Brown in 1946, in a whole new direction of travel.


The factory closure by one of the county’s best-known businesses was part of a bold strategy focused on increased investment in digital capabilities at a new state-of-the- art, low carbon production site in Padiham.


Fast forward some 16 months and


managing director Andrew Graham, grandson of Harold, is explaining with enthusiasm the digital transformation that has swept through the business and the thought process behind the evolution.


He is doing so whilst conducting a tour of the company’s design studio in Blackburn – a hive of artisan creativity where its highly-talented team are hand- painting, line-drawing and embroidering to produce the bold patterns and images that make Graham & Brown’s interiors stand out from the rest.


Continued on Page 56


LANCASHIREBUSINES SV IEW.CO.UK


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