Heritage British knitwear model John Smedley has promoted Jess Mcguire Dudley to the function of Managing Director with instant impact, taking on from Smedley member of the family Ian Maclean, who now steps into the function of Government Chairman.
Mcguire Dudley was beforehand Deputy Managing Director at John Smedley and, previous to that, World Model Director.
She first joined John Smedley in 2014 as Head of Advertising and now “breaks with custom” to turn into the primary Managing Director of the model from a artistic background.
Mcguire Dudley has been pivotal in remodeling the advertising and marketing and gross sales facet of the enterprise lately. She has refreshed the model’s picture and the various methods it’s seen in markets world wide, leading to double-digit will increase to John Smedley’s international gross sales throughout e-commerce (80%) and its retail shops (6%), in addition to rising its bodily retail footprint with two standalone shops in London.
Along with new wholesale showrooms in London and Milan, the footprint of shops in Japan has grown to 11, with additional new openings coming in 2025/2026.
Mcguire Dudley mentioned: “There’s a actual love between me and this enterprise, and I’m decided to make sure it thrives for many years to return. The industrial panorama is a problem for a UK primarily based manufacturing model; conventional wholesale and retail proceed to be powerful, and the longer term has a whole lot of unsure challenges, from US tariffs to tax will increase.
“However it’s a problem we’re up for dealing with, and we’ve got loads of new concepts to keep up John Smedley as ‘The World’s Best Knitwear’.”
Lately, Mcguire Dudley has overseen product tasks and manufacturing overhauls which have included a ‘Made in Japan’ assortment with key Japanese retailers and a partnership with The Marketing campaign for Wool and British farmers to utilise domestically reared fleece.
She has additionally strategically launched a brand new line, ‘JS x John Smedley’, with John Lewis within the UK, which makes use of round yarns and brings British manufacturing to a wider viewers.
Established in 1784, John Smedley stays the oldest manufacturing manufacturing unit on the earth, nonetheless working in its authentic residence in Lea Mills within the Derwent Valley, Derbyshire.
The appointment coincides with a renewed deal with strategically futureproofing John Smedley, each in manufacturing and in product design.
Mcguire Dudley has just lately overseen the reintroduction of its third-party manufacturing arm inside its Derbyshire headquarters for a small, steady roster of likeminded manufacturers together with DAKS.
Mcguire Dudley mentioned: “Along with our core collections, bringing British fibre to the forefront of what we do, supporting the broader trade of spinners to farmers, and injecting a contact of British innovation into every part we do – that’s how we modernise our trade to make sure we entice new expertise.
“We are able to blow off the cobwebs of the sleepy notion of workmanship and present how charming it may be.”
John Smedley holds the Royal Warrant of Appointment from His Majesty King Charles III for nice knitwear and at the moment employs 275 folks.
To additional futureproof each the corporate and British craftsmanship extra broadly, Mcguire Dudley will introduce a expertise financial institution to foster coaching and growth in knitwear manufacturing for younger folks.
She added: “I’m eager to nurture expertise, ensuring John Smedley as a enterprise is an area for folks to study and develop far into the longer term.”
