"Their biggest strength was their blazer," sales director, Jeremy Aston-Phillips told me. "Then sitting behind that was their knitwear and their skirts."

"And those three product groups all added fantastic value to the Blue Max portfolio," adds chief operating officer, Ian Ryden.

It was a fabulous opportunity to grow the business and, as it turns out, it was a very timely business move. The advent of academies is re-introducing children to the concept of school uniform. And, according to Ian: "The benefit of operating in the schoolwear sector is that it's virtually recession proof.

"Regardless of the general economic circumstance, it is as a sector that continues to grow. But value for money is also a big consideration. The market is competitive and our prices need to be lean and keen.

"Stag have always been well known for the quality of their schoolwear, and in particular for their blazers. We had to find a way of maintaining the standard, but bringing the prices down to a more realistic level."

Continues Ian: "By re-sourcing some of the lines and cutting out some of the middle men, we are now where we want to be. The latest brochure will offer a core range of stock blazers but we are also introducing a range of different coloured linings and colours, giving more flexibility and choice to customers choosing the 'made to order' route.

Since the acquisition, skirt sales have also taken off. "We are looking at a 50% sales uplift next year from where we are this year, and this year is 50% up on where we were last year," Ian adds.

The bespoke side of the business is also growing. Blue Max sources specialist tartans through Yorkshire-based Marton Mills, the world's number one supplier, and manufactures the skirts in Poland.

A hallmark of Blue Max's offering is the huge diversity in styles, sizes and colours. And skirts are no exception. "We have 220 different designs of skirts-pleated, non pleated, pinafores and kilts all of a bespoke nature. We also have access to a practically unlimited range of tartans," says Jeremy.

"Knitwear has also moved on significantly in terms of pill resistance and a big growth side of our knitwear business is the cotton acrylic, although our acrylic range is developing as well. "We've always got to be conscious it's going to sit on a child's back and they are going to wear it every single day for a week. It will get everything you can imagine thrown at it. So we find a happy balance between a hard wearing fabric that is not too harsh on the skin."

Recalling the Stag acquisition, Ian says: "The rationale for the purchase of Stag was cross-integration of the two product ranges in an area which we know and understand well.

"We didn't forecast the recession, but with hindsight, we did the right thing. Through Stag, Blue Max increased its annual turnover by around a third, adding 50-60% to skus (Stock Keeping Units).

An advantage of Blue Max's new warehousing operation is that it can hold a huge amount of stock which can be supplied within 24 hours.

"If you don't get your forward order in, it's no longer the end of the world for our customers," comments Jeremy.

"It is because of this that we are gaining new business in certain areas. Customer are reassured to know that our warehouse is stocked to the gunnels and will remain there throughout the season."

The way that the business has been tailored suits the current economic environment. Not surprisingly, people are leaving it later to order this year.

"Our customers are careful about their cashflow and there is a general fear of the state of the economy," says Ian.

Peak season, Blue Max ships 25,000 garments a day from its state of the art warehouse, which has the capacity to store up to five million garments and has a separate mezzanine area for 100,000 hanging garments. The company can also now boast an impressive 99.8% picking accuracy.

"In the schoolwear sector we'd like to think we are far and away the most accurate stock holding, picking and despatch operation," continues Jeremy.

"We have spent a year and a half investing significant sums into our warehousing systems operation. Now we are a 100% bar code operation."

It was a huge undertaking and initially, it took four months just to bar code the existing stock. Now, bar coding is passed back to source.

"That's really the route of our success," continues Jeremy. "If someone phones up and says I want 10 of those, we know we've got them; we know where they are and they can have them tomorrow."

Another significant factor in Blue Max's success is its relationship with tried and trusted manufacturers in the Far East.

"We have been using some of these factories since day one," says Jeremy. "In many cases, we know the owner or the manager personally.

"It comes back to our USP (unique selling point). Our best selling polo shirt, the Penthouse polo, has been made by the same people for 10 years and there's a reason for that. We view the quality of the garment and the consistency of the garment to be as important as any other aspect of the mix."

Blue Max takes quality control so seriously that a main board director has responsibility for it. "It's right up there along with the financials," says Ian.

The company has also invested in a spectrometer to ensure colour continuity, which is hugely important in school uniforms.

Continues Ian: "The most important part of QC is the relationship with the factory. The protection of that relationship and longevity is the best mechanism. Some of our relationships are very long standing and personal, and that does lead to increased quality. If you're moving your product every few years to save five cents, you are going to come across problems."

The advent of supermarket own brand school uniform at rock bottom prices poses new challenges to traditional schoolwear suppliers.

"It does cause an element of price pressure," according to Jeremy. It's a question of quality, he adds. "Three years ago, when one of the supermarkets brought out a very cheap polo shirt, our customers saw a dip in sales. But then they picked up again."

The issue centred on quality and the ability to embroider a budget range shirt.

"They just tear to pieces and are not a stable enough surface for embroidery. The garments move about within the frame and cause huge problems," adds Jeremy.

Blue Max, he says, could produce a blazer to compete with the supermarket product, but it wouldn't have the same characteristics. The Blue Max blazer has around 120 components while a supermarket blazer might have just 30.

Adds Jeremy: "We use a special non-shiny fabric which won't fade when you wash it. We use a particular brand and weight of interlining. When you wash it, it still has that crispness and shape to it. The way it's constructed, the way the lining is put together, where the zips are, where the pockets are - a great deal of time and effort gets put into it."

Showing me around the new warehouse, where 100,000 pristine new blazers are waiting to be despatched for the new school year, Ian tells me: "In the schoolwear sector, I would say we are number one in terms of customer service by a margin."

By anyone's standards, Blue Max is top of the form.

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