Author Archives: dev1

Working with apprentices

It’s been just over a year since our apprentice Terri-Jane Harris left the Elsatex Group (including Clearance Textiles and Victoria London Textiles) to travel the world.  Now back from a carefully planned four months round-the-world trip, we caught up with Terri-Jane to find out more about her successful and growing business ‘Terri Towelling’ which supplies hairdressing towels to salons across the UK.

After finishing her studies at MidKent College in Gillingham in 2013, she joined the Elsatex Group as a marketing apprentice. Fresh from college, Terri-Jane brought with her a variety of ideas and new skills, all welcomed by the growing Elsatex team. These included implementing new marketing strategies such as flyers, email campaigns, website development, brand identity.  On joining the team Terri-Jane said “While some of my peers stayed on in education, or went to university, I felt training in the work environment would benefit my personality more than further academic learning”.

During her first year at Elsatex Terri-Jane continued to hone her marketing skills and in 2014 entered the prestigious Kent Excellence in Business Awards (KEiBA’S).   She entered the Apprentice of the Year category, and was delighted to be selected as one of three finalists to go through to the gala awards evening.  Unfortunately she didn’t win the Apprenticeship of the Year award, but her infectious enthusiasm and commitment gained her great recognition within the county.

Hairdressing Towels

With the travelling bug behind her for the time being, Terri-Jane has now taken back the lead at Terri Towelling, a company she set up while working at Elsatex.   The company is now growing from strength to strength and is currently selling over 3000 hairdressing towels a month!  The majority of sales are from her Ebay on-line store and the future sets to be bright for Terri-Jane.  With her confidence growing she is looking to add new ranges to her collection, and also working on ways to expand this niche but successful business.

As a leading supplier of hairdressing towels, the Elsatex Group are still very much part of Terri-Jane’s road to success.  We supply Terri Towelling with all its towelling requirements and will continue to develop new products for the hairdressing market.  We currently stock a number of colours that are appearing in salons across the UK, including; Hot Pink, Navy, Grey, Beige as well as the bleach proof range of towels.

We love working with Terri-Jane and hope this young entrepreneur continues to gain recognition within her field and look forward to partnering her in projects for many years to come.

What is it like to work in a textile factory?

Textile factories are often in the press for the wrong reasons and due to this we are often asked “What is it like to work in a textile factory?”.  In answer to this question we would like to share a story about ‘Amina’ she is not a real person but a symbol of a typical female worker at one of our factories.

Clearance Textiles is a leading distributor and manufacturer of textiles items.  We partner a number of factories in Bangladesh and are committed to providing a safe and healthy work place for our staff.

We recently invested a 50% share in a factory in Bangladesh.  The partnership has gone from strength to strength and as a way of saying thank you we have created a social co-operative.  Our intention is to one-day give our share back to the staff.  We have already given back 15% and currently working through the liabilities to make the factory financially secure so the staff can run the business by themselves.

Amina’s Day

6am    Amina starts her day.  To ensure the upkeep of her 3 children she looks forward to her working day at the textile factory and this work also provides the family’s main income.

7am    Work begins and on her arrival to the factory she is marked in the attendance register.

The factory offer safety and medical check-ups, so she finds most of the workers are lined up taking their vaccinations accordingly. She puts on her overalls and walks up to the finishing section of the textile factory where she is hired for her talents on the sewing machines.

The company offers many incentives for young mum’s and Amina and her colleagues enjoy a share of the profits the factory makes.

10am    An order for coloured towels they were working on is urgently required and the shipment date has been forwarded a week early – meaning it needs to leave by the end of the week.  Amina and her team take up the challenge and determined to beat the other girls in the other teams they set off working industriously for the next hour.  She and her team complete their task and the order was able to leave in time.
3pm    The factory has organized a picnic for all their staff and workers to enjoy.  Amina and her colleagues enjoy all sorts of activities, including games, competitions and tug of war – a favourite of hers.

During the picnic Amina and her colleagues are rewarded a 20% increase in their earnings to recognise their hard work.

Elated after a happy and fulfilling day she heads for the journey home – thinking of the lovely meal she would be able to feed her children and mother.

The Elsatex Group’s factory in Bangladesh

We often hold fun days at our factory in Bangladesh…. below are some pictures.