Barbour's best at bigging up brand

Jun 24 2009 by Iain Laing, The Journal

THE country clothing company favoured by Royals, rock stars and ramblers has won a national award for promoting its brand.

South Shields company J Barbour & Sons – whose name is synonymous with the waxed jackets it has been making for a century – won the prestigious national Best Brand Award at the Sunday Times PricewaterhouseCoopers Profit Track 100 Awards.

Against some very tough competition from smoothie makers innocent and Virgin Trains, Barbour was recognised for its best use of brand.

Chairman, Dame Margaret Barbour, said “I am delighted to receive this award on behalf of everyone at Barbour. It is a tremendous honour to be recognised in this way, particularly in the current retail climate.

“Since 2000, we have developed Barbour as a lifestyle brand, introducing contemporary and heritage clothing alongside our iconic wax jackets and sporting wardrobe. This has widened the appeal of Barbour clothing to a new customer base.”

The Profit Track 100 awards brings together founders and directors of Britain’s top 100 privately-owned companies with the fastest growing profits over the latest three years of available audited accounts. The sponsors of the Profit Track 100 Awards, in consultation with Dr Hamish Stevenson – founder of Fast Track and associate fellow at Oxford University – judged the nominees of individual awards.

Barbour has been confident of retaining strong sales through the economic storm after seeing annual profits jump by more than a third in 2007 to £9.27m. Its turnover also rose to £62.7m in the 12 months to the end of 2007, from £58.14m a year earlier, according to annual results which have just been published.