Distributors, suppliers and industry guests joined embroidery specialist Madeira at its new headquarters in Ripon on 15 September for an official opening ceremony that also celebrated 40 years for the company in the UK.
Martin Müller, board director for finance and HR at the company’s head office in Germany, honoured the occasion by cutting a multi-coloured ribbon, a ‘stocking’ woven from Madeira thread that included the colours of the German flag.
UK chairman Karen Burrows told the assembled guests that the construction of the new offices had taken rather longer than expected, due first of all to the pandemic, then to the outbreak of war in Ukraine, which had affected the supply chain. “It’s not been an easy time at all, but we did it,” she told guests, adding that during the move they had closed for just one business day. “We’d like to think the transition was seamless, certainly to our customers when we reopened, but rather like gliding swans, it was business as normal whilst we were all paddling rapidly below the surface.”
Commenting on Madeira’s new premises, UK managing director Andrew Maylor said: “The new building is going to provide a foundation in which to grow further.
“We are blessed that the German owners have invested so heavily in the future of the UK business,” he added.
Also attending the official opening was Sebastian Schade, the company’s head of global marketing, who had travelled with Martin from Madeira’s headquarters in Freiburg, Germany.
Madeira’s new premises include a 2,327m² warehouse that has 2.5 times the stock capacity of its predecessor, with space for further expansion in the future. The building also includes a training room for trialling new products and hosting embroidery courses, two board rooms, a staff hub and offices.
The company is a third-generation family business, founded more than a hundred years ago in Germany. Madeira now comprises 17 companies worldwide and the UK daughter company is the second largest, after the USA.
