Industry News
Hobkirk celebrates 120th anniversary in 2023
I
n 2023 Hobkirk Sewing Machines is celebrating 120 years since the business’ foundation in 1903.
Founded in 1903 by William Hobkirk, Hobkirk Sewing Machines began trading from a shop premises in Blackburn. William later welcomed his son Edgar and then in the 1960s his grandson Peter Hobkirk joined. During the 60s they invested in another shop, 126 Darwen Street at the other side of town and over the following 30 years they bought five more shops in the same row and now occupy 118-130 Darwen Street and the car park to the rear of the premises. The domestic business grew considerably in the 70s and 80s and Peter expanded the business accordingly, opening shops in Preston, Blackpool, Burnley, Accrington, Bury and Rochdale. The 80s also saw the introduction of industrial machines so the business built extensions to the rear of the premises on Darwen Street to allow for industrial workshops, showrooms and warehousing. Mark Hobkirk joined in 1993 and the company added commercial embroidery machines to its portfolio of products followed by a fabric department housing over 2,000 fabric designs. Hobkirk’s domestic department supplies a full range of Brother, Janome, Juki and Babylock home sewing machines backed up by a full range of
Hobkirk’s founder William Hobkirk
Mark Hobkirk celebrates 30 years with Hobkirk in 2023
accessories, haberdashery, threads etc. plus in-house technical engineers with over 40 years’ experience.
For supplying sewing factories Hobkirk has trading agreements for the UK with Seiko (Japan), Zoje industrial sewing machines and Comel pressing equipment (Italy), all backed up by an in house parts department plus a team of six engineers.
Hobkirk also supplies other leading makes including Brother, Juki, Global, Maier, Strobel, Yamato and more. Its cutting department supplies hand, straight knife, tape and lay end cutters. The embroidery division has its own dedicated showroom and supplies a comprehensive range of single and multi-head embroidery machines from leading manufacturers Ricoma and Brother supported by factory trained technicians.
The 16-strong team is headed by managing director Mark Hobkirk, supported by his wife Kathy as company secretary and co-director Marcus Gannon. The business occupies a 10,000sq ft premises spanning 45 rooms, including a sewing machine museum with over 200 antiques. Interestingly, as the company celebrates 120 years of trading, Mark celebrates his 30th year with the company.
The shop front in Darwen Street, Blackburn Epson establishes unique offering with new appointments E
pson UK has underpinned its commitment to industrial label and textile production with the establishment of a direct sales channel following the appointments of Russell Lambert and Chris Smith as account managers for commercial and industrial. Both bring extensive industry experience to their unique direct sales roles. Mr Lambert joined from Konica Minolta where he was commercial print account manager. He has also worked for Canon, Xerox, HP, Kodak, and PrintSpeak. Mr Smith joined from Dantex
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk Russell Lambert Chris Smith
where he was latterly UK and Ireland sales manager for flexo/ digital inkjet solutions. Prior to that he held roles with Eastman Kodak and a number of printing companies including St Ives. Together they will be the key contacts for Epson’s industrial label and textile systems – the Monna Lisa, the Epson Surepress and the Epson SC-F10000H. Mr Lambert is the contact for southern England and south Wales while Mr Smith is the contact for northern England, not Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland.
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