‘Our city is making denims once more’: meet the agency reviving jobs and expertise in Wales | Retail business
Worn on the streets of London’s Soho, San Francisco or Sydney, each pair of high-end denims made by Hiut Denim comes from the moderately unlikely location of a small coastal city in west Wales.
Cardigan, with a inhabitants of simply 4,200, has a proud historical past of denim manufacturing and was as soon as house to Britain’s largest denims manufacturing unit, even when the city’s identify remembers a special garment completely.
When denims manufacturing in Wales was moved overseas at the beginning of the century, lots of of native individuals misplaced their jobs and had been pressured to search out work elsewhere.
Hiut Denim was based by David and Clare Hieatt in Cardigan in 2011. The couple, each initially from Wales, beforehand ran the moral vogue model Howies. They arrange Hiut – the model identify blends their surname with the phrase utility – with the objective of reviving denim-making expertise within the city and coaching up the subsequent era of expert craftspeople.
Elin Evans was a kind of “grand masters”, as they’re identified within the firm, with a lifetime’s expertise of constructing denims. Now 59, Evans is Hiut’s manufacturing unit supervisor and has been within the commerce since 1983, when she was 16.
“I’ve accomplished a full loop, as a result of that is the place I began,” she says, from her seat behind a stitching machine on the manufacturing unit ground. Deftly dealing with the indigo material, she strikes particular person items via the machine and a pair of denims begins to take form.
In its heyday, the Dewhirst manufacturing unit in Cardigan the place Evans as soon as labored employed about 400 individuals, representing about 10% of the city’s inhabitants, and cranked out 35,000 pairs of denims every week for Marks & Spencer.
When Dewhirst determined to outsource manufacturing to Morocco, Evans was given the chance to maneuver to Tangier. But the founding of Hiut led to her returning house to Wales and to a stitching machine. “I hoped it was like driving a motorcycle,” she says, “however you always remember and the remaining is historical past”.
As Hiut took off, the corporate moved into what was as soon as a part of the Dewhirst manufacturing unit, taking Evans again to the place she started her profession. A slogan painted on the manufacturing unit wall proclaims “Our city is making denims once more” and Welsh flag bunting flutters above the stitching machines, in celebration of the annual cultural festival, held this yr in early August only a miles south of Cardigan.
Evans and the opposite grand masters who joined Hiut have spent many years reducing items of cloth, creating pockets and stitching denim.
The model’s manufacturing ranges are far faraway from the mass manufacturing which beforehand came about in Cardigan – Hiut employs 20 individuals, who make 120 pairs per week.
The firm insists its product isn’t any bizarre wardrobe staple. Each pair is made by hand from 17 items of cloth, with a “made in Wales” label contained in the waistband and one other label signed by the member of employees who stitched the denims. Hiut additionally affords lifetime repairs.
“The majority of the time, you already know the identify of the person who’s purchased your denims. You know your buyer and the shopper will get to know us as nicely,” says Evans. “We’re very happy with what we’re doing and the standard is prime notch.”
Indeed, online fashion reviews reward Hiut’s consideration to element, comparable to neat seams and the way all the rivets that includes the model’s identify or owl emblem are added by hand to make sure they face the identical method.
Such premium denims include a suitably premium price ticket – about 10 instances increased than the price of a high-street pair – beginning at £245 for males’s and ladies’s slim-fit types, created from natural cotton from Turkey, and rising to £350 for pairs created from premium Japanese selvedge.
Hiut prospects contains TV personalities Ant and Dec and the model received a giant increase when the Duchess of Sussex wore a pair throughout her first official go to to Wales in 2018, leading to a three-month backlog of orders.
Despite such endorsements, the corporate hit monetary difficulties within the wake of the Covid pandemic, when the founders approached a few of their prime prospects to ask in the event that they wished to spend money on the corporate.
One of those was the German von Loeper household. They initially turned minority shareholders in late 2024, earlier than taking up the corporate in September 2025. Johann von Loeper, 26, turned the corporate’s chief govt, leaving a profession in finance in London to maneuver to Cardigan.
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He says his father, Philipp, was a loyal buyer first, which prompted the family-owned asset placement group to take a stake in a agency past its traditional investments in life sciences or agricultural firms.
“We don’t do something in retail or vogue actually, that is extra of a ardour mission,” von Loeper says. “My father form of turned obsessive about the product … I believe he purchased greater than 30 pairs.”
The household has dedicated to holding the manufacturing in Cardigan, though von Loeper provides that the manufacturing unit’s west Wales location creates logistical challenges when shifting completed clothes or bringing in photographers and fashions for photoshoots.
He provides: “The factor that attracted all of us to Hiut was the aim of constructing denims once more, and never only for the sake of constructing denims, however to have the roles, to need to craft, to have expertise stay right here.”
Some high-profile guests have tried out the craft. A framed picture and letter from Kensington palace hangs on the manufacturing unit wall, commemorating the March go to of Catherine, the Princess of Wales, the place she had a go on a stitching machine.
Walking previous large rolls of cloth from among the most prestigious denim mills within the planet – in Japan, Italy and Turkey – von Loeper says he confronted a giant determination shortly after taking up operating the corporate. A key Japanese denim provider warned Hiut and different long-term prospects that operational pressures meant it was about to shut its order books till 2027.
“We purchased £100,000 value of selvedge in my first few weeks right here as a result of I stated ‘let’s get it now earlier than we run out’ and that was one of many higher issues I did,” he says.
When the von Loeper household took over, they stated Hiut was “shedding some huge cash each month”, however they believed that with asset placement and a brand new technique, the model might develop into worthwhile once more.
The new house owners quickly started working updating the complete denims assortment, and are hoping to tackle extra employees to allow them to enhance manufacturing. Von Loeper is conscious that Evans and different grand masters are quick approaching retirement age and believes the corporate has a “five-year window” to rent and adequately practice new workers. He additionally desires to broaden Hiut’s attraction, and as a part of that has secured new stockists, together with Liberty division retailer in London.
“Our buyer age group has all the time been 35-55,” says von Loeper. “Our denims had been worn to the workplace even earlier than Covid, however we will positively see that prospects and what they’re shopping for for has modified and we try to adapt to that.”
At the store situated simply metres away from the place denims are being made, prospects come to attempt on completely different jeans. One buyer, Paul Tomlin, has made a goal journey to Hiut throughout a go to to Wales to purchase extra of his favorite denims.
“I got here to verify I received the correct match. I attempted on three pairs and located a method that fits me,” says Tomlin, holding a branded bag containing two new pairs. He says he likes the agency’s ethos in addition to its clothes: “It’s an excellent story and has an excellent really feel as an organization”
