Inspire Intimates Ltd was founded in 2011 by Helen Richardson and Jo Stockdale – from their head office in Harrogate, the company designs and sells lingerie, swimwear, nightwear & loungewear and sports garments to brands and major key accounts in the UK and across the world. They offer a full design and technical service along with manufacturing support (manufacture is based primarily in Asia) and delivery management. The Inspire team now handle over 3 million garments a year. Pamela Scott found out how they have coped with the challenges of the last year: nimbleness, innovation and flexibility being key.
“In early January 2020 we started to hear the murmurings of the virus in China and started to experience some issue with the supply chains. December and January are of course peak manufacturing months in a bid to get out all the product pre Chinese New Year. Having to work harder and keener than ever to meet these delivery dates, we took a huge sigh of relief when we had successfully delivered all orders out on time but no one could have imagined that by early March, it would have become a nightmare reality to us all. We were all so unprepared for what was to come,” comments Jo.
So when did you start to really feel the effects of global slowdown?
By early March, the virus hit down in the UK and by the middle of March it was as if someone had pressed the stop button on everything. Panic set in as lockdown began. We had a full order book and healthy debtor ledger at the point of initial lockdown but then everything paused as the shock and uncertainty of the situation set in.
Literally, over the next few days, we had most customers put a ‘hold’ on everything. This left us with hundreds of thousands of garments at several stages of manufacture. We also had payments outstanding to us that could not be made. We had a turbulent 5 to 6 week period, where we had no idea what was going to happen and I think it is fair to say that we had a few sleepless nights!
And how do you feel about the role of government at the onset of the crisis?
By the end of March, the government had thankfully stepped in with the furlough scheme and in reality, this was the only life line left to a lot of businesses. I am sure most people will agree that continuing to work through the epidemic was in fact a much, much tougher job, having to adapt to working from home, Zoom calls, self-motivation and actually working at bizarre times of the day and night to ensure that we covered everything that needed to be done when it needed to be done to ensure we had a business to come back to. We are so proud of our most loyal and dedicated team members.
When did you begin to see any positivity through the ongoing crisis?
We continued to struggle and tread water through early to mid April, but by the end of the month, we started to see a changing tide. Shipments started to get released, payments started rolling in and all of a sudden, we were back in action. Throughout May and June, the demand was extremely high for fast turnaround of orders and new developments.
It was actually starting to show that customers with a strong online presence were in fact exceeding targets and sales and were actually growing their businesses with us, whilst customers who relied more on bricks and mortar were the ones struggling and suffering really badly. Our mission was to try and work as closely as we could with our customers with the intention of being as flexible as possible by helping to phase orders out where we could and then reacting as fast as possible to newness and ‘shorter lead time’ orders. In the main, I am proud to say that I think we have done that.
In regard to newness what changes have you seen in customers’ requirements?
The one thing we have seen is a shift in the demand of the types of product customers wanted. With people either working from home or on furlough, key drivers were comfort lingerie which includes wire free bras, crop tops and seamless products. There has also been a huge growth in loungewear, nightwear and active wear and they are all still crucial drivers as the world adapts to the new norm.
Bizarrely however, the top most in demand product area has been anything sexy and our own growth level in this area has been unprecedented, as we already supply most of the well-known brands in this market and they are obviously over performing in their own sales figures. We anticipate a baby boom in 2021 and are currently experiencing a big lift in maternity wear developments. On the down side – the swimwear market has suffered severely due to the reduction of overseas travel but we do anticipate a very high recovery of this area once we are all able to travel again – as the world will be desperate to get onto that beach!
And what challenges do you anticipate in the next 12 months?
We have no clear view of the landscape for 2021 and what this year may bring, but our mantra will remain centred on our customer ethos:
SUPPORT for our customers, our manufacturing partners and our own internal team at Inspire.
COMMUNICATION in the ever changing climate keeping clear and honest lines of communication open.
FLEXIBILITY in helping our customers react to ever-changing demands and help them to maximise sales.
INNOVATION – rather than sitting back and reacting to this crisis and its demands on the industry, taking the time to be more proactive and invest in new technology and ideas.
At some point in the future when this pandemic is under control we feel people are going to be crying out for the next ‘new thing’ and inspiring product and we want to be ahead of the curve with these ideas.
