Nigel Plenderleith is getting stuck into one of the biggest jobs in the garment industry. His timely move to Blue Max in April saw him spearhead the take-over of his former employer, Banner.

It was an audacious move by Blue Max, which is by far the younger company, at 23 years, while Banner’s foothold in the schoolwear market goes back 150 years.

The acquisition adds Banner’s bespoke and generic garment brands, Distinctive, Beau Brummel and Banner to the Blue Max stable, along with established childrenswear brands Little Darlings, COCO and Abella, plus menswear collections, Pegasus and David Johns.

The move, he says, was one of the industry’s best-kept secrets, genuinely taking everyone by surprise.

“One of the reasons for me being here (at Blue Max) is that we have been able to have an insight into the other company,” Nigel tells me. “It made a big difference to the deal. It made it a lot more interesting and exciting.”

The “marriage” doubled the size of Blue Max overnight, making it the biggest schoolwear supplier in the UK, with a joint turnover of £26m.

Readers of Printwear & Promotion will be familiar with Blue Max’s meteoric rise. In the last four years they have purchased schoolwear supplier Stag, and have invested in a state of the art warehouse in Trowbridge with a capacity for 5 million garments.

There can be no doubt that Nigel is the right man for the job. The youthful 58-year-old has bags of energy, and has a knack for putting people at ease. But his inside track on the garment industry – and the experience he brings to the table from a variety of high profile jobs – will help Blue Max steer the right course as it manages its latest growth.

I caught up with Nigel at Blue Max’s Trowbridge HQ at the start of the necessary strategic review which will involve 17 managers from both companies.

As we spoke, marketers in an adjacent office were busy working on next year’s catalogues (there will still be two for 2011) and considering how to re-brand the newly merged operation.

The key message for the moment, however, is: It’s business as usual and Nigel is quick to reassure staff and customers.

In fact, the response from customers has been very postitive, Nigel tells me.

After a lengthy period of uncertainty – Banner has had three owners in as many years – the move puts the company back on an even keel under Blue Max’s steadying hand.

Both sets of customers will benefit, according to Nigel. Blue Max intends to capitalise on a greater bespoke offering, while Banner will benefit from Blue Max’s high levels of customer service.

Nigel believes the businesses perfectly complement each other.

“Blue Max’s entry into schoolwear is quite different to Banner’s,” he says. “Blue Max supplies to printers and embroiderers, but doesn’t necessarily know where that product is going to end up, whereas Banner is predominantly supplying the independent retail market and is very strong on bespoke – particularly with blazers.

“Banner would have in the region of 200 to 300 different patterns, 400 to 500 different fabrics and we would be at a slightly different end of the market – more into the private schools sector, where they specify the blazer.

“The Banner acquisition broadens and strengthens Blue Max’s offer to the trade.

“One of the things we want to do,” he continues, “is to further establish the Blue Max brand as a brand. We will probably end up with four brands, Blue Max, Banner, Beau Brummel and a sportswear brand and we then want to drive those brands into the business.”

Currently, he adds, there is no clear brand structure.

“We need to decide on what those headline brands are and develop them, playing more to the strength of the brands.”

Nigel had initially joined Banner in a consultancy role, looking after schoolwear, but was soon overseeing “the whole shebang”. At the time, the company was owned by Cosalt, who decided to put the business on the market. A proposed management buyout failed but after a few false starts, Banner was snapped up by businessman, Ian Powell.

Inevitably, rationalisation followed. The workforce was slashed from 160-170 to the present 62. The cuts were brutal and from the top down, recalls Nigel.

Banner was still manufacturing in the UK, but the factory became another casualty.

The impact was clear. “We didn’t have a good delivery service for back-to-school 2009 and I think a lot of people blamed the new owner. They felt we’d made too many changes too quickly,” remembers Nigel.

“We were late with orders and stock was late coming in from the Far East. If you haven’t got it right, you let people down.”

One of the criticisms of Banner business was that it hadn’t progressed and some of its competitors caught up – particularly on the blazer product, says Nigel. “The blazer is the key link. If you have got the blazer, the rest will follow.”

Nigel decided to leave Banner at the end of 2009. “In some ways, my move to Blue Max was slightly pivotal in making the sale happen,” he says. “I started at Blue Max on April 12 and we did the deal on May 28.”

He looks back on that period now as “strange, but exciting”.

The Banner Group turnover at £14m was marginally bigger than Blue Max’s £12m.

“The acquisition is specifically for developing the bespoke side of the business,” adds Nigel, saying that few competitors can cater for this growing niche market.

“It’s an area that Blue Max, following the Stag acquisition, had started to get into and wanted to grow, because it is quite a big growth area. Buying Banner has given Blue Max a much bigger toehold because Banner is the largest bespoke schoolwear supplier in the UK.”

The timing is fortuitous. The new coalition government is forging ahead with the academy programme and is giving parents, teachers, charities and local communities the chance to set up new schools. Pupils are being actively encouraged to help design their new uniform, because it gives them ownership.

“What they want is a point of difference – to make the children feel they are part of that school,” Nigel continues.

“Within the industry, we have always believed – and it is proven – that uniform, no matter on what sort of scale, or how extreme, does instil discipline within a school, and that brings better results.”

Of course, schoolwear suppliers cannot afford to ignore the supermarket offering and Tesco’s £3.75 school uniform is certainly a headline grabber.

“The schoolwear industry is a billion pound industry and supermarkets are fighting for a share, so what we must do is come up with a point of difference and that comes down to customer service, quality, value and added value to the product,” Nigel believes.

Personalisation is a key aspect of the mix. “To have a tracksuit with a name and school badge on it, is an important part of getting that team spirit together. There is quite a market for that,” Nigel continues.

“The other area we feel very strongly about is that the schoolwear retailer and the manufacturer are there 52 weeks of the year. In supermarkets, it’s a very small window. But supermarkets are inevitably our biggest competitor because they see back to school as the third most important date in their calendar after Christmas and Easter. And it’s not just about the polo shirt and the blazer it’s about everything that goes with it – the pencil cases, the satchels, the lunchbox.”

A huge amount of planning has gone into the merger, but on both sides, managers are keen not to make any knee-jerk decisions.

“We’re having a two day strategy meeting next week and I have set up a number of task forces that are looking into product, IT, warehouse, pricing and discount structure, and there will be people from both companies on these teams so that we end up with a balanced view,” says Nigel.

“We are running them as two separate businesses at the moment.”

He foresees some “sensible rationalisation”, but there are physical limitations, Nigel says.

“You can’t move the Banner warehouse into here and you can’t move the Trowbridge warehouse into that. We haven’t physically got the resources or the space to make those moves. We will look at those areas where you can get a fairly quick win.

“The key thing is we don’t want to lose either sets of customers,” Nigel adds.

Are there any areas of excellence that each company brings to the other, I wonder.

“Yes,” says Nigel. “The one area that is very obvious to the outside world is the customer service from Blue Max. The revamp of the warehouse in 2008 is the best in the industry. That’s very much designed to give the customer the service levels that they want. That’s something that we would want to mirror in Banner/Beau Brummel very quickly.

“Going the other way, it’s the skills set on the technical side of Banner. Elements of it are so bespoke that that is something we would like to bring into Blue Max.

“The other area that we see as extremely important is the marketing of the brands. It is very important that we drive these brand names. We have got to put ourselves into the market more. The Blue Max polo shirt has got to be known for its delivery, its quality, its longevity – and create the demand for people to come back and buy that product.”

Interestingly, while the schoolwear sector has been feeling the pinch, Blue Max has been riding high.

“Blue Max’s market share pre-acquisition was increasing and a lot of that was driven by good customer service,” comments Nigel. “They’d become recognised as someone who was being taken seriously in the schoolwear industry.

“With that as a background, the positive signs have been accelerated by saying OK, let’s buy what was the second biggest schoolwear supplier in the market, with this other niche (bespoke). These businesses are not mirrors of each other. They actually fit together because Blue Max buys 10 times as many polo shirts as Banner and Banner buys over 20 times more shirts and blouses than Blue Max. If you take Banner’s experience on shirts and blouses, and put that into Blue Max, the Blue Max customer will be able to buy a much better product than it did before, and vice versa.”

Short-term, the goal will be to integrate the two businesses. “Medium term, it’s to build the best supplier to principally the schoolwear industry and beyond.

We have got to do it on controlled growth,” comments Nigel.

One particular area for growth will be sportswear, he adds. “Printing and sportswear go together and we need to look at how we can develop that for those customers.”

Blue Max’s huge stockholding puts it in a strong position, especially with the current supply problems brought about by the shortage of cotton and increased yarn prices.

“Blue Max’s stability is key. If the competition are having problems because they can’t get the product, this is where we can step in.”

Reflecting on the current state of the market, Nigel comments: “Obviously it’s a difficult time for the industry. You could argue that within the printwear sector, schoolwear is a fairly strong performer, and it’s an area where decorators should channel their efforts.

“The industry is having a tough time and I don’t think it’s filtered through to the end user what’s happening on yarn prices. We’re getting a log jam in the middle, where someone doesn’t want to pay more, but you’ve got to pay more at this end.”

Credit limits are also becoming more and more of an issue, he adds.

Blue Max’s financial stability inspires confidence in customers, and the Banner take-over can only widen the offering for decorators.

“In some ways, Blue Max was ready for its next move. Because of some of the uncertainty in the schoolwear market, it was a fantastic opportunity,” comments Nigel. 

For more information about Blue Max visit www.bluemaxgroup.co.uk

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