Business for Scottish leisure and golfwear company, 'Links To Scotland', has taken off with the help of Brother's unique embroidery machine – the PR-600.

The PR-600 has the power and advanced features of a commercial embroidery machine. But at half the size and half the price, the machine is pitched at talented sewers who want to start up their own embroidery business.

This was the key attraction for Kathleen Crowe - who with husband Sid and son Benn opened 'Links To Scotland' in Carnoustie in 2001, providing quality leisurewear and golfwear manufactured, designed and embroidered in Britain.

Having previously run a limited company when living in Malaysia, Kathleen was keen to run her own leisurewear clothing business when the family returned home to Scotland. Sid said, 'Being situated in the heartland of golf gave us the perfect opportunity to create home-grown golfwear - rather than branded wear imported from America or Asia.'

Sid continued, 'By focussing on the importance of comfort and fit to golfers and extending these design principles to leisurewear, we've developed the "Links To Scotland" collection. However we became increasingly frustrated at having to sub-contract our embroidery needs - small quantities of logos for garments were expensive to produce, the embroidery quality wasn't up to our high standards, our deadlines were not being met and we wanted to ensure care was taken with every item.'

Sid was attracted to Brother's PR-600 mainly due to its price. Having purchased the machine at Pembertons in Stirling, the PR-600 has allowed the family to ensure the quality of their products is maintained, timescales are controlled and small or large quantities of embroidered goods are produced at the touch of a button.

From 'Links to Scotland' embroidered polo shirts, shorts, trousers, jumpers, water/wind proofs to golf head covers, flight bags, visors and socks - the PR-600 has taken the strain and financial pain from outsourcing the business's embroidery requirements.

Looking to the future, Sid commented, 'We started off in Carnoustie, are currently based in Forfar and reckon the next stop is St Andrews - the legendary home of golf. Our retail reputation is growing and as well as attending local golf club events and producing collections for regional fashion shows, we have seen the demand increase for our collections - available via post and on-line.'

The PR-600, priced at around £4,995 is a hybrid of a home embroidery machine and industrial embroidery machines, which require major investment in resources and space. The Crowe family were delighted by the compact size and versatility of the machine but most importantly, the price and savings they have made by not outsourcing their embroidery needs.

Sid added, 'The embroidery we offer now has a more professional look - we can oversee the production of the garments and having a PR-600 has ensured we have a quality business were every product is overseen from creation to distribution in house.'

Compact and portable, the PR-600 incorporates all the user-friendly functions of a Brother home embroidery machine with the versatility, speed and professional finish of a commercial model.

Familiar Brother features include a colour LCD touch screen control panel, pre-programmability and compatibility with Brother's embroidery cards and PE Design software - so embroidery images can be downloaded direct from the Internet or a digital camera. The extra large full-colour screen allows users to position, re-size, merge, mirror image, re-colour and rotate any design at the touch of a button.

With one portable head, six needles and a top speed of 1,000 stitches per minute however, it also offers many features that can only be found on top-of-the-range industrial embroidery machines. A built-in automatic needle threader threads all six needles eliminating time-consuming colour changes.

With the PR-600, automatic colour changes can be pre-programmed for the entire design and retain the design memory after the machine has been switched off or in the event of a power failure. Thread breakage sensors will stop the machine if the thread breaks or runs out.

An optional cap frame is ideal for embroidering baseball caps while hooping for T-shirts and tubular garments is also easy with the 'free arm' feature. Integral design styles include 13 fonts, ten border designs and 57 floral alphabets with patterns for all ages and interests built into the machine.

To find your nearest Brother dealer please call 0870 830 4020, email

sales@brother-uk.com or visit the Brother website at www.brother.co.uk.

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