The Big Interview
Bringing British sock manufacturing home
For the past two years For the past two years Exceptio has been quietly rebuilding British sock manufacturing from a purpose-built facility in the heart of the country’s historic hosiery industry, combining production with sustainability and innovation. Acting editor, Benjamin Austin, sat down with managing director, Rob Horsley to discuss the site and more.
Exceptio’s manufacturing facility in Ashfordby
O
n a secluded bit of land on the fringe of Asfordby sits a modern facility hidden by trees and hedgerows.
Surrounding it are fields, stone houses, and the River Wreake, but when arriving at its location, you are met with a slick set of buildings that has been growing in recognition over the last two years.
This is the UK base of sock manufacturer Exceptio run by managing director Rob Horsley.
Roughly 4,000m/sq in size, it was designed to be a scaled version of his production facility in Portugal, containing the same machinery and practices as the European location; albeit smaller.
But its reduced size does not detract from its purpose, as it was designed to bring production back to British soil functionally and sustainably.
Working with the onshore market
Though the latest building has been in use for the last two years, Rob and Exceptio have been working from the site for the last 20.
Rob said: “I think the bigger message was more important: the ability to introduce manufacturing back to the UK, not just
| 28 | August 2026
from an R&D perspective but for smaller orders. “So, what we decided to do was emulate our main facility in Portugal, so what you see is a mini version of the production facility over there.”
Though scaled down, the facility offers just as much in terms of production, with stocked materials being the only restriction due to space.
Approximately 250 shades of yarn are stocked in Portugal, with around 50 held in the UK for rapid turnaround. But with every cloud there is a silver lining, as being based in the UK comes with different advantages.
Rob continued: “We can work with British wool, which we don’t have to export as it’s grown and dyed here, so that is a huge advantage.
“Since bringing production here, we’ve hired four new people, we’re buying British materials, putting back into the economy, so they’re all positive things coming from this site.” Most significant of all though, it establishes production back on British shores; an achievement that Rob didn’t think he would see.
He said: “Egotistically, I’ve been in the industry for 45 years and never believed in my professional lifetime it would come back.
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
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