MADE IN WILTSHIRE
Dents: Keeping the art of glove making alive
Warminster is home to the internationally renowned Dents brand, one of the world’ s finest glove makers. Synonymous with British tradition and craftsmanship, the firm established in 1777 is one of only 3 companies in the UK keeping the art of glove making alive.
The firm is family-owned and has only been passed between two families since its inception. Employing 70 peoples at the Warminster head office and manufacturing facility, the firm exports to 27 countries making 40,000 pairs of gloves a year, and a further 300,000 gloves in Eastern Europe. We met with Deborah Moore, Dents chief executive to find out more about the company.
How has glove making changed over the years?
The techniques that we use to make gloves are exactly the same as we have used for the last 240 years. The only change came when electricity was introduced and we started using electric sewing machines. Everything here is still done manually, from all the cutting to the stretching of the leather.
How long has Dents been working on a global scale?
Dents has always been a truly international company, before international companies were around. We had warehouses, in London, Paris, New York, Grenoble and Naples. We also had factories all over the world and scheme dressing yards, so this was a massive company. Those were the days when women always bought gloves to co-ordinate with an outfit.
Our gloves were for sale in Selfridges when it opened it 1906. You would go and sit down, put your elbow on a velvet pad and have the glove peeled on to your hand, because the fashion was to have very tight fitting glove.
The red glove used in the first episode of the BBC series Mr Selfridge was a Dents glove, especially made for the drama.
Are your gloves often used for TV and film?
Yes, we do a lot of movie work. Dents gloves can be seen in the recent James Bond films. Daniel Craig loves our gloves. He designed his own and we still have lots of orders for the Spectre and Skyfall gloves.
We are currently making gloves for Kenneth Branagh’ s Murder on the Orient Express, featuring Johnny Depp.
How long has Dents carried the Royal Warrant?
The Royal Warrant was granted by HRH the Prince of Wales in April 2016. We were lucky to receive it, it’ s not a given that you get it. You have to be selling to the person for up to five years.
When we applied for it, there was a lot of work. We have always been careful about the sourcing of our skins, but we had to prove that everything is sustainable and fully traceable. We had to produce several hundred documents to reinforce how eco-friendly the whole procedure is. Luckily, because we’ re in a new building everything is environmentally friendly. The lights go on by movement for example, so we were part way there, but we had to measure waste and reach targets to recycle more, so it was a great exercise for us. We then waited several months before we were told we were granted the Royal Warrant, which is great because we export to 27 different countries, so having the Royal Warrant on all our packaging is fantastic.
Where do you source your leather? There are three types of leather, hair sheep, deer skin and peccary. Hair sheep comes from Sudan and Ethiopia, dry, arid countries. The hair sheep is a cross between a sheep and a skinny goat. It’ s obviously killed for its meat and the skin is a by-product of the meat industry. It’ s a very strong, supple skin that can be stretched.
The second type of skin is deer skin; it comes from North America and its got a lot of texture and character in the skin. Personally, it’ s my favourite skin.
And then we’ ve got peccary, which is a wild pig from South America. Traditionally the Japanese love these gloves and they sell for anything up to £ 500 a pair. The traditional colour of the peccary glove is a yellowy / golden colour, mostly hand sewn.
What are the main countries you export to?
Japan, the US, South Korea, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium and Holland. More recently Lithuania and Estonia have been good importers too. We’ ve had a wholly owned subsidiary in Australia for over 100 years, which we still have.
You’ re stocked in leading department stores all over the world, where can we find Dents products?
In the UK Harrods and Selfridges, Mitsokosi in Japan, Isetan in Japan, Hyundai in South Korea. There’ s a very long list! We also have white labels and make for a lot of designers.
When did the firm start to diversify and make things other than gloves?
In our museum based here in Warminster, we have catalogues from the turn of the century and in 1901 / 1902, we were making pyjamas and stiff collars and we’ ve got illustrations of that, so we’ ve always made other products.
Have you changed the way you sell over the years?
Prior to coming here, I worked as a buyer for House of Fraser, Littlewoods and Boots. So, I see everything from a retailer’ s point of view. When I joined, Dents was a factory making gloves, so they were selling what they could make. We turned it around and made what we could sell, so the emphasis was on retail.
What’ s the future of Dents? Web sales are going incredibly well for us. They now account for 20 % of our business and this figure is growing all the time. I love the website, as I see it as a shop window and we run it exactly as if it was a shop. If sales are slow, we run promotions, do mail outs, change our image, it’ s just like running a shop.
For more info: www. dents. co. uk
@ dentsgloves
THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2017 15