NEWS Tom, Lowie and Artuur
Belgian hat manufacturer City Sport has new ownership. The West Flanders family business and its production unit Declercq & Declercq BV were founded in 1898 and are known for their quality caps. After four generations led by the Declercq family, the company is now in the hands of brothers Artuur and Lowie Coffez. The Coffez twins are a close-knit duo with an inside knowledge of the ready-to- wear industry. Lowie previously worked for three years with his father in the
City Sport acquired by Coffez & Coffez
family business Machinehandel Coffez, a wholesaler of industrial sewing machines less than seven kilometres from the Ardooie workshop in Belgium. Besides the Coffez brothers, the family holding company Balansa has also taken a stake in the business. This gives the company the necessary financial solidity and allows their mother, who has 30 years’ experience in the production of children’s clothing and workwear, to come on board. Artuur, a civil engineer and architect by
training, will be responsible for design, marketing and production, while Lowie will focus on organisation and sales. Following the takeover, the company’s
strategy remains unchanged and all partnerships will be maintained. The business model of in-house production and cooperation with foreign partners is also favoured by the new owners.
More information
www.citysportcaps.com
Hat Works
Museum relaunched
Stockport’s Hat Works Museum has reopened following major redevelopment. The UK’s only museum dedicated to the hatting industry relaunched in March 2024 after an extensive refurbishment and reinterpretation of its collection.
The relaunch is part of a wider project
for the borough as it tips its hat to its rich industrial history while setting forth its vision for the future. Mark Hunter, Leader of Stockport Council, said: “Our £1bn town centre regeneration programme – one of the largest nationally – is reinventing and transforming the heart of our borough now and for the future. The reopening of the Hat Works Museum, which traces how important hatting was to the town’s initial rise in the industrial revolution, is now part of the town’s ‘mighty metamorphosis’, which made it a fitting place for the launch of the borough’s ambitions for the next 15 years.” Stockport was once home to around 30 major hat
factories and was known for its high-quality fur felt hats. As the industry declined, the final hatting factory closed in 1997, marking the end of over four centuries of local production. Stockport’s Hat Works first took up residence at its home in Wellington Mill in 2000 with previously a small collection of hats on display at Stockport Museum and the
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Battersby Hat Factory. The Grade-II listed Wellington Mill was built as a fireproof cotton spinning mill in the 1830s but switched to hats during Stockport’s hatting heyday in the 1890s. Visitors can now discover more than 1,300 hats and
related objects, with an array of hat types from military and practical to high-end and artistic. While many were manufactured in Stockport, the collection includes hats from around the world. And thanks to a grant from the Association for Industrial Archaeology, which promotes the study, preservation and presentation of Britain’s industrial heritage, visitors can enjoy seeing the Victorian hat-making machines in motion for the first time since 2016. Hat Works continues to partner with community arts organisation Arc, who are based at the museum.
More information
www.stockport.gov.uk/topic/hat-works
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