Marathon Knitwear (aka Beales)

[Martin M 0]

I wonder if you ever met my dad...Harry Murch...he was managing director based at peveril street?

[Wheeldon 0]

Me and my sister Gill and Janet worked in the typing pool at peveril

st late 60's

I remember some directors Mr Payne, A C Faulds, Miss North seas personal officer. Sewing Mechanic called Richard. Vanna who.s dad was on factory floor

[DJ360 6,721]

Just wondering Wheeldon.  Are you connected to the Wheeldons who went to High Pavement GS in the 1960s and lived at one point in houses at the end of Bestwood Rd, close to Moorbridge?

 

Col

[denshaw 2,871]

Or even connected to the Wheeldons from Glebe st in the Meadows?

[Socram 130]

On ‎10‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 9:37 PM, catfan said:

Nowt wrong with M & S.

I had a phone call from London when boss man was at M & S.

 

"Socram, can we reduce the labour cost of a dozen pack of men's underpants, by £2.00?"

 

"I doubt it Norm.  The current labour cost is less than £2.00 anyway."

 

Classic case of

 

a) management not exactly understanding the actual cost of manufacture

b) the start of M & S totally screwing British manufacturers.

 

Having been involved in the industry now for over 40 years,  with a very wide client base, I have yet to come across any company that was anywhere near as efficient as Marathon was, in terms of labour productivity.

 

The guideline target for costings at wholesale is Direct Labour 20%, raw materials (including packaging) 35%.  The very fact that over 30,000 in the trade lost their jobs in the Nottingham area alone in just one year, was generally down to M & S pulling the plug.  When I see that over recent years that their clothing sales have crashed, I laugh. 

 

They never were a fashion house but were brilliant at top quality basics and when you look at the way men's fashion virtually hasn't changed since then, they should have just carried on doing what they were good at.  Basics.

 

They also needed their suppliers to make a profit to invest in the new technology, which would ultimately have reduced the labour costs anyway, but they were greedy. 

[plantfit 7,577]

All too many companys these day are greedy and most have no loyalty towards their employees then they wonder why the company is going down the pan, no loyalty from the customers, serves em right but as usual it's the innocent that suffer such as the supply companys who provide the bigger ones with the raw materials

 

Rog

[catfan 14,793]

I was going to give my reply but plantfit beat me to it. Also my point was about me liking the quality of their men's clothing NOT the mechanics of production costs etc.

Talking of greedy companies how many have moved production to the EU with EU grants that we pay in to ? The reason being cheap labour only & no other reason.

I'll start off with Imperial Tobacco moving to Poland.

[plantfit 7,577]

And where are all the help line call centers based now,  anybody speak Gujarati? you hit it on the head catfan Cheap labour

 

Rog

[Brew 5,405]

I bought all my shirts and underwear from M&S when I was younger. Good quality at reasonable prices and made in England, then some management clown tried to take the company 'up market' and it's never been the same since.

[PeverilPeril 3,279]

Don't know how I've missed this topic. With most of my family living on and around Peveril St/Alfreton Rd. The Beales factory was very important to us. My Mum and three aunties worked there at one time. Materials used to be delivered in large wicker baskets and the empties were stacked outside on the pavement waiting to be collected. As kids we used to play in them. Two or three of us used to 'play den' in them with the lid shut. Fortunately none of us got loaded into the big vans.

[OLDIE 45]

Spoke on this before, but thinking of Peveril St, from 1949 to 1955 We lived on Gadd St, which was  "dead-end", backing on to Peveril St works. We nicked the odd cones, and fabric poles to play with. Dare'nt tell Mam though. She worked there as an Ironer, in the Press Room. 1960, I went work there in the cutting room. When the supervisor retired, and Peveril St moved a lot of production to Marathon,.  Sorry, I meant I worked in the cutting room at Marathon. "It's me age you know". Ken Thomas became our cutting room manager. He had a great interest in photography, and I think he did the wedding photos for a lot of people. He became another victim of the redundancies in the late seventies , early 80's. His son also worked there in the design department. But the early memories of Marathon in the sixties! By the way, when I went to work there, my Mam had moved to Marathon. No help getting a job though. You had to go and do it yourself. We was tougher in them days!.Albert Burton, Dennis Burton, David Burton. They like a lot of others constituted a lot of family members working in the same factory. By the awy, It was called F.L.Bastows in those days. Aaaah, memories.