"We were eight; now we are 15," Katie tells me as we settle down for a chat about Henbury's evolution and future plans.

My catch-up with Katie and her team comes shortly after Henbury's participation in the successful PenCarrie roadshow.

"Gosh it was busy. I don't think there was a moment when we had no one on the stand," said a delighted Katie, recalling the last day in Exeter.

Henbury, of course, is famous for flagship brands including Henbury, Finden+Hales and Skinnifit.

The latest acquisitions bring other big hitters to the stable, including Tombo, Front Row and Tour Collection.

But how did it all begin?

"Henbury started in October 1997 and we first launched the collection in January '98," recalls Katie. "It was launched because we thought there was a gap in the market for a more stylised range of polo shirts which gave a better level of quality and design but which also fitted into the required price bracket."

Their first offering, a polo shirt took off. "We're fortunate that our cotton polo shirt was picked up quite quickly and within three years, it became the best selling cotton polo shirt in the UK market," adds Katie.

Other products were added, including the 65/35 "the big volume polo" and the range was developed to include woven shirts, trousers, knitwear and more recently, jackets.

"So it's become a fully coordinated range," says Katie. "We do a little bit of children's wear  but what we have always tried to do is offer products that are different from the rest of the market. We don't try and copy. We look for opportunities that we feel we can advance."

According to Katie, the printwear market has changed dramatically over the last 10 years.

"It's gone from a basic polo shirt and T shirt to what it is today - 2,500 products, from towelling bath robes to blow-up jackets!" she comments.

Henbury is a well established name in the market. "The name Henbury came from a village in Cheshire," recalls Katie. "It's quite an unusual name - it travels quite well. And the logo hasn't changed since we first started. It's a classic."

Being based in a funeral parlour is often a talking point and Katie recalls how Henbury inadvertently replicated the funeral parlour theme on their first trade show stand.

"It did look like a funeral parlour actually - with purple flock walls and green sofas and a bar with bar stools and white lilies!"

Henbury has always adopted a "retail" style of approach to its image, says Katie. "One of the problems we had in the beginning was that people thought it was more expensive than it actually was."

Within two years, Henbury launched a second brand  Skinnifit.

"At the time, we felt there was no one doing ladies' T shirts but in the retail market they were everywhere. Girls were buying children's T shirts. I remember people using age 11-12 Fruit of the Loom T shirts as promotions shirts for girls," remembers Katie.

"So we started Skinnifit with an interlock T shirt in a one-size-fits-all, which featured in the range until this year.

As the retail market evolved, the brand followed suit with different products in a variety of fabrics. "Our best selling ladies' T shirt now is our SK101," Katie tells me.

Are you continuing to take your lead from the High Street? I ask.

"Very much so. It's much more fashion-orientated now. It's a younger market," says Katie. "Saying that, it (the brand) can be for anyone from 18 to 65. So it's got to fit all shapes, sizes and ages. But it does appeal to a younger market and quite a lot of it goes into retail.

"You have got to be on top of the trends," she adds. "I think that now the printwear market is responding because people are travelling to shows, travelling around Europe and you are picking off ideas."

It wasn't long before Skinnifit added a men's range. Initially it was called SFM because, according to Katie: "We didn't think that men would want to wear a brand called Skinnifit!

"But we quickly worked out that people didn't appreciate the fact that SFM was Skinnifit so we changed it. About 50 per cent of our Skinnifit brand sells in Europe, so it's very much European-led."

Skinni Minni followed for children and, says Katie, the brand has had a very good start.

In April 2007, Henbury had the opportunity to acquire Finden+Hales, Larkwood and Towel City.

"That was just the beginning of the whole teamwear thing happening in the market place," recalls Katie. "We were lucky that we were able to reinvent the brand (F+H) with new products and a new direction and that has gone fantastically well and it continues to grow."

Interestingly, Finden+Hales has been around longer than Henbury, says Katie.

"But it hadn't really had the opportunity to find its way in the market place. Because of the distribution that we have within Europe, it meant that we could offer those brands to our European distributors.

"Once we had established the company in the UK, we were then in a position to offer the products in Europe. We have very strong distribution in France and Germany and similar in Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Spain and Slovenia

"There were only a few established distributors within each country who specialised in this kind of product, so for us, it was important that we worked with well-established partners in each country."

Katie acknowledges that it takes a while for a brand to get established in a new country.

"What we do is we will go out to see the distributors - the ones that we targeted as the right options for each country - and we will work with them. In the UK our distributors are PenCarrie, Ralawise and Prestige, then we have 21 distributors in 12 other countries.

"We cover 85% of the UK market with those three distributors. They are extremely loyal in that they take all of our products. There's never a question of them cherry picking from the range. Sometimes when a distributor cherry picks – and we suffer a little bit from this in Europe  you don't get the whole look and feel of the range."

Each of the brand managers are responsible for the garment design, market positioning and brand development.

"We have very established manufacturing bases," says Katie. "We tend to design around fabrics. So if we want to bring a certain shape into the range, particularly with Skinnifit, then we will put it with a factory that already makes suitable fabrics.

"You need to be aware of what's happening with the retail brands but we do have slightly more flexibility perhaps than larger (retail) brands.

"The suggestion is from the States that wicking fabric is going to become the minimum standard for the next five years. It will be interesting to see what happens," says Katie.

When it comes to design, she adds, the decoration potential is uppermost in their minds.

"The trend is for lighter fabrics on the High Street and we have gone as light as we can. Textured fabrics are quite difficult in our market because people do worry about how easy they are to embroider.

"There tends to be a general hesitancy about anything that is not completely plain," she adds. "We put Coolplus into Finden+Hales a couple of years ago and we have seen enormous pick-up on it. In polo shirts that weren't pure sportswear, we were the first to use it. Such a cross section of people wear them because they are so easy to wear.

They are easy to care for - easy to iron, and they are never going to lose their colour," Katie continues.

"We have now moved that fabric base into Henbury on a basic polo shirt. It's received a huge amount of interest. And we have also put a slightly lighter weight Coolplus into Finden+Hales."

With factories based in Pakistan, Bangladesh and China, Katie says that Henbury are obsessive about corporate social responsibility.

"We visit all the factories that we work with. We also have our own agents in each country and they monitor the factories. They maintain our ethical policies. They make sure there's no child labour," she adds.

"We visit the factories probably four times a year. I have been visiting one factory in Bangladesh for 15 years. We have a really strong relationship."

Brand managers also visit the factories.

"We are in quite a difficult market where you are having to buy extremely high quality goods at a price point that is going to gain a number of margins," says Katie. "The advantage, of course, is that you are buying in bulk, but because we are more on the fringe end of the market we need to be quite clever at where we buy and who we buy from. So building relationships with our factories is extremely important.

"We don't move factories unless we have to. We have already been out to visit the factories for our new brands. We spent about 11 days out in China visiting all the plants. Obviously one of our aims is to consolidate wherever we can."

Building a relationship with reliable manufacturers is crucial, adds Katie.

"Because there are a limited number of factories that can cope with the quality we insist on," she says.

"Our agents do our quality checks in line and primary inspections. We are visiting factories and do our own quality checks when we are there. All the fabrics are tested and sent to us on first production for our approval. Some of the fabrics are tested by us and don't go into production without our approval."

With 14 brands in the Henbury portfolio now Katie does not rule out acquiring other brands in the future  "Whatever they might be," she adds cryptically.

But what of the existing brands?

"We have great plans for our new brands  the development and the direction they are going to go in. Tombo and Finden+Hales are within a similar type of market but we see both clear direction and opportunities for both brands. And we're very excited about the World Cup.

"Tour Collection is one of our challenges. There are great opportunities for 2010 and for other sporting events throughout the year. Then we have the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, so there are opportunities.

"We may also be looking at rationalising the brand," she adds. "It is a little too diverse and we will, perhaps, be scaling down. It's such a distinctive product, it almost needs to be designed every year."

Teddy bear brand, Mumbles, is fabulous, adds Katie. "People love them. Every second call in the office is about Mumbles at the moment."

"We also have a clear vision on the direction for Front Row. At Exeter people loved the sailing jacket. We're getting great feedback."

Certified organic brand Okarma is also set to grow.

"It is more mainstream now. People are starting to ask for organic school wear and we are responding to that request," says Katie.

She predicts that 2010 is going to a challenging year. With high unemployment, anyone who supplies workwear will continue to struggle, she reasons.

"What we want to try and do is pull people away from having to buy at premium prices for bespoke products to being able to purchase from a sustainable supply base.

"It's fair to say that the whole market saw a downturn in price points during 2009. We're hoping that people will buy back into quality," adds Katie.

The Henbury portfolio

• Henbury
• Front Row
• Skinnifit
• Skinnifit Men
• Skinni Minni
• Finden+Hales
• Tombo
• Okarma
• Towel City
• Mumbles
• Tour Collection
• Pashimi
• Splashmacs
• Larkwood
• Whytes

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