The manufacturing and wholsale business has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1987, whilst, crucially, maintaining the core values it was built on. For those of you that don’t know the story, Blue Max was formed when Mary, who had long been involved in the equestrian world through her talented daughter Fenella, was asked to help raise funds to assist Britain’s riders in the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Mary set about selling an official ‘Go for Gold’ sweatshirt by mail order to an incredible 30% of the membership, and so the new company, named Blue Max after Fenella’s International Event Horse, was born.

This programme was repeated at the 1992 Olympics, but in the meantime Mary had decided to extend her activities to assist various charities and businesses, importing garments for organisations such as Granada TV and St. Thomas’ Hospital. This formed the nucleus for Blue Max, which David, her husband, expanded when he joined Blue Max in 1993. Together Mary and David, and later Fenella, worked from their attic using a third party warehouse until the company outgrew both, at which point they moved; first to Devizes and then to the present premises in Trowbridge, where they have one million cubic feet of warehousing. A re-design of the warehouse last year generated an extra 40% of space through the introduction of gravity fed roller racking with a gentle slope towards the pick face.

“The beauty of this system is that the pick face is very compact and immediately allows for a doubling of pick face locations, i.e. doubling the effective product range capacity,” explains Jeremy Phillips, sales and marketing manager. “It also makes it easier to rotate stock on a first-in-first-out basis as the stock is replenished from the other side to the pick face.”

Mary recalls with a chuckle that they were denied the clothing contract for the 1996 Olympics, despite contributing £20,000 for the previous Olympics, as they were deemed to be too small – one member of the committee remarking that Blue Max was run by a little old lady in her front room! This has become an ongoing family joke!

Mary is still somewhat bewildered by the success of her business. Although she had no formal training, she is fully aware of the importance of sales, service, margins, profits, but above all she is eternally grateful to her customers and staff, many of whom have been with her for years. Mary’s philosophy is to treat staff, suppliers and customers as friends; to avoid jargon; to work hard; and provide a personal and efficient service for her customers.

“I’d come from buying and selling horses, where I treated all my customers as friends, and it’s the same today,” she says. “We are genuinely honest and nice to our customers.”

Today the company covers schoolwear, workwear and leisurewear, with a focus on quality garments and consistent standards and performance. Continuity is a big issue, says Mary. “We look for suppliers that can deliver consistency year after year. It is absolutely critical that the suppliers don’t suddenly change their fabrics or dyes.”

Consequently, both Mary and David spend a lot of time out visiting their overseas factories and making the necessary checks to help maintain these high standards. As Mary says: “Agents are agents, but they’re not you.” Their visits also help to build relationships with the suppliers, as good communication, both with suppliers and customers is also crucial to the business. “If something does go wrong, we will always tell our customers,” says Jeremy Phillips, sales and marketing manager, “and we’ll always try and go the extra mile for them.”

He adds: “We also take the time to go and see our customers as it’s nice to see how they’ve grown along with us.We are not just a faceless organisation.”

In an industry forced to compete so fiercely on price, Blue Max is firm in its stance. “You disregard price at your peril in this industry,” says Mary, “but there’s no way we will allow price to affect our quality or service.”

It is equally confident of its ability to remain competitive against those who wish to import directly from overseas, through offering not only quality but also service. “Some people do choose to import directly now but it’s a hassle and somebody has to manage it,” says Mary. “We are picking up business from people who have traditionally imported themselves – it’s actually cheaper for them to come to us. Plus top-ups are much easier when using a UK company as there is no three-week lead time.” As a case in point, she adds: “One customer once said they were going to stop buying our polos and move to importing them directly. A year later the customer came back to us and said: “I want a hassle free life!”

Schoolwear

The acquisition earlier this year of Stag Knitwear, its brands and manufacturing facilities in the UK and in Poland has strengthened the company’s position, particularly in the schoolwear market, as David explains: “The acquisition of Stag has placed us amongst the front runners of suppliers to the schoolwear market. The integration of the two companies is progressing well and, assuming Stag can achieve the faster rates of growth traditionally and currently enjoyed by Blue Max, we expect the combined businesses to become the clear market leader before long.”

As a family-run business Stag fits well with Blue Max, adds md Chris Whitby, with virtually no overlap on garments or customers. It also brings with it manufacturing and embroidery facilities in the UK.“There’s still a lot of potential in schoolwear and garment decorators need to be aware of this opportunity,” he points out.

Garment technology

Everything the company does is geared towards the decorator, says Mary. “We are not into high fashion – we want products that will go on and on.” To an extent, customers even drive new product development – the Mistral Jacket, for instance, was born from a customer request but it really took off and became the company’s second biggest seller (the Penthouse Polo is the best seller), she says.

“When it comes to product development we will find out what our customers want and then look to what trends there are in the market. Elements of fashion are creeping in now, even in schoolwear,” explains Phillips.

Also under the Blue Max Stag umbrella is the Medallion sportswear brand, which is being developed this year with the launch of several new lines, including a high performance football strip. One of the features of the brand is its traditional cotton rugby jerseys, which are a big hit not only in schools but also with corporate and club customers, says the team.

“There’s an awful lot of poor quality rugby shirts out there, but these shirts will actually withstand playing, as that is what they are designed for,” says Phillips. The shirts are made from Medallion’s exclusive cotton two-ply, fast dyed and pre-shrunk to the company’s own specifications. Features include a taped and reinforced collar, extra reinforcing under the arms and shoulders, three layers of webbing at the placket and an extensive range of stock options as well as a bespoke service. “There is a big market for speciality rugby tops, and having the production under our own wing gives us the flexibility to meet this demand,” he adds.

The future

Neither Mary nor David has any plans to retire in the foreseeable future, far from it in fact. Following the Stag acquisition Blue Max now claims to have the most comprehensive range of schoolwear in the industry, to add to its workwear, sportswear and leisurewear ranges, and predicts these will continue to grow. “The industry remains fragmented, despite some signs of consolidation, and we would not rule out making further acquisitions once Stag has been sucessfully integrated,” explains David. “We have the financial strenth to develop our business and believe there are a number of suppliers to the school and workwear sectors that might form interesting partners with us in a much larger group.”

But for Mary it is her baby growing up and blossoming into a ‘proper’ company, which despite some inevitable change will still retain the family values and relative simplicity of its early days.

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