Official Show Guide - director-e

COMPANY PROFILE
Workwear
from the
GEN Y range
making specialist FR garments
from quality fabrics with
Nomex ® and Pyrovatex.”
Fristads & Co is also a member
of the Nomex ® quality
partnership. These are quality
control measures set up by
Nomex ® manufacturers DuPont
to guarantee the quality of the
products throughout the whole
of the supply chain. With the
Pionér expertise in anti-flame
protective clothing already well
established, Fristads & Co is
now working with key
distribution partners to supply
premium workwear brands
Fristads and Kansas.
Working wonders
UK and Ireland managing
director Phil Moore
Initially appointed as national sales manager in
April 2007 to develop these workwear brands, Phil
was then promoted to managing director for the
UK & Ireland in May 2008. Having started by
restructuring their external sales force, he is
pleased to welcome onboard two new regional
sales managers - Scott Curtis, who joins them
from Jackson Safety Products, and Paul
Seedhouse, who previously worked for Russell
Europe. Dean Forde has also been promoted from
a customer services assistant to area sales
representative for the East Anglia region.
“We have the strongest team we’ve ever had,” Phil
says. “They are young-minded and switched on to
what people want in the market.” This is important
for a market sector that has seen the demand for
young and fashionable
workwear spread like wildfire
across Europe.
GEN Y, one of Fristads & Co’s
most innovative ranges,
embodies this trend. Launched
in 2007, Phil says that GEN Y
was the first range of its kind to
combine functionality with a
youthful, trendy design: “I think
that the real innovation with
GEN Y was recognising that the
garments can still be strong,
functional and durable and also
incorporate an element of
design and colour, which really
appeals to the young
tradesman.”
Although the range has been massively successful
in Europe, they feel that they didn’t shout enough
about it in the UK at the time, but Phil is optimistic
for the future. “We still feel that our range stands
out wherever we show it to people despite the
fact that they might have seen other ranges. I think
the clear difference is that we haven’t adapted any
of our existing styles – we came out with
completely new designs and new colours that
were inspired by the fashion industry and utilised
those in our workwear.”
A complete offering
GEN Y’s boldly designed range includes hoodies,
softshell jackets and worker trousers that have
been cut lower on the waist, with multiple pockets
and design elements. Phil says that Fristads & Co
has the most comprehensive workwear offering of
any workwear manufacturer in Europe.
An extension of this workwear is the A-Code
brand, which offers leisure and outdoor garments
that can be worn in even the harshest conditions.
Made from quality fabrics and built for design,
comfort and durability, the majority of Fristads &
Co’s products are also Oeko-tex certified - an
international standard that guarantees that no
harmful or dangerous substances are used
during production.
Laura McIlwrath, Fristads & Co’s dedicated
marketing executive, continues to focus on raising
brand awareness and the company profile within
the UK, developing new markets through utilising
the benefit of both premium Skandinavian
workwear brands Kansas and Fristads. Laura
believes that having two premium workwear
brands offers a distinct advantage in the
marketplace: “It means that we have a broad
product base, which avoids conflict from
distributors competing over the same product and
price. Instead, they are developing the market as
opposed to fighting over it.”
This advantage will only increase when Fristads &
Co introduces a mid-price workwear range, KLM
Kleding, later this year to complement their
premium ranges. They say you have to watch out
for the quiet ones, and that definitely seems to be
the case with Fristads & Co as they firmly believe
that they have chosen the right time to strike. “It
will do us a lot of good to position ourselves in a
recession and continue to grow our external and
internal sales force,” Phil says. “This will be our
time to shine.”
I think that the real innovation with GEN Y was recognising
that the garments can still be strong, functional and durable and
also incorporate an element of design and colour
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