Corporate Information
COMPANY PROFILE
High Street
The Edinburgh Woollen Mill has 192 mainstream high street stores selling ladies and menswear for the 45 plus customer. Outlets are located in a wide variety of market and provincial towns, 70 per cent of which are positioned south of Birmingham.
Tourist Shops and Visitor Centres
We have 94 speciality tourist stores, where gift items and other products reflect the stores location. The outlets, which trade under an individual, often local, fascia, are in key tourist locations throughout the UK - 60 per cent of which are in Scotland. Many stores are on busy tourist routes and benefit from coach visits where food service and exhibitions are all part of the attraction.
Destination Shopping
There are 28 destination sites which contain all of the Group's concepts and other brands to increase their attractiveness as a retail destination. The sites trade under local, individual fascias such as Antartex Village, Masson Mill, Kernow Mill, Mackinnon Mills, and as anchor tenants in larger developments like Wilton Shopping Village.
Our Service
As well as our core customers of the 60s plus market, EWM has now started to present its product to the 45 to 60 year old market (the fastest growing UK age group). We constantly liaise with suppliers and the Group's associate manufacturing companies to provide a fresh and diverse clothing range for these markets.
The Edinburgh Woollen Mill is closely involved in every aspect of the development cycle of a natural woollen product - from processing raw material, through production of yarn and cloth to the design and manufacture of the garment, and finally to the sale in the shop and now on www.ewm.co.uk. By maintaining total control in this way, we have built a good reputation for providing the finest quality merchandise at the best possible value.
COMPANY HISTORY
The Edinburgh Woollen Mill was founded by Drew Stevenson in 1946 as the Langholm Dyeing and Finishing Company, undertaking the dyeing of yarn on a contract basis. The development into retailing began in 1970, when David Stevenson, eldest son of the founder and until 2000 the Group's Chairman, opened the Group's first shop in Randolph Place, Edinburgh. In 1972, the decision was taken to retail the range of tartan and woollen garments in England as well as Scotland. The first branch south of the Border opened that year, appropriately enough at 81 English Street, Carlisle.
The rapid and successful growth of the Group since 1970 has come from two sources; firstly the expansion of EWM's own retail activities, and secondly the acquisition of other businesses to extend and compliment the Group's internal development. Companies which joined the Group in the 1980s included the old established Edinburgh tartan and knitwear business of Romanes & Paterson, formed in 1808, which first traded from its Princes Street premises in 1880; Antartex, specialising in sheepskin and leather goods, and the Clan Royal of Scotland chain of retail shops then based at Walkerburn. In March 1992, the Group acquired Craftcentre Cymru, the largest and most successful group of retail shops in the tourist areas of Wales. All of these consolidated the Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group's position in the retail market.
EWM's chain of retail shops, from the North of Scotland to the South coast of England, reached the two hundred mark in March 1993, when the EWM Group acquired Grampian Woollen Mills (comprising Pitlochry Knitwear, Moffat Woollens and James Pringle Weavers), whose strong tourist-orientated operations were a logical complement to EWM's own leading role in the domestic sector. Today's Group, still based in the Scottish Borders town of Langholm, now employs over 3,500 people and has an annual turnover in excess of £170 million.
On 15th November 2002, the Group was bought out by the management led by current Chief Executive, Philip Day. The Edinburgh Woollen Mill (Group) Ltd is an independent privately owned Scottish group, and continues to be fully managed, controlled and administered from Langholm, Dumfriesshire.
The enhancement of the EWM brand continues with the development of stylish ranges for the 45 plus customer, as showcased and available to buy on www.ewm.co.uk.