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Chortex Heritage

Victoria Mill goes back to 1904, when the factory was first built by Mr. W. T. Taylor. Mr Taylor had been an employee of John Ainscow at the Beehive Mill, but he decided to start up on his own, at 55 it could not have been an easy decision. With the backing of friends and relatives, he proposed to start a towel mill in Horwich, providing himself with a living and employment for the local community. So he set himself the task of raising £10,000 for the mill to be built.

Little by little the money came in, a number of people entrusting all their savings to Taylor, so strong was their belief in him. True, all who subscribed to the venture ultimately got their money back several time over, but at the time their investment was an act of faith.

The original building was completed during 1904 and started up with 100 looms. Taylor fully understood everything to do with the technical side of the work and indeed had taught weaving at the Harris Institute Preston. What he had overlooked was that the majority of the towels he had been making in his former post had been for the Indian market. They would just not sell in this country. With a loan of £3,000 the tide finally turned when Taylor introduced a process for weaving waste yarn, a technique that had never been used before. This produced Terry (Turkish) towelling much cheaper than by the normal process and the product sold so well that the success of the mill was assured.

The business expanded during the early years and large markets were established in the United Kingdom and abroad during the 20’s and 30’s. By the 30’s, Taylor’s had become the largest towel manufacturers n the British Empire, running 1,200 looms with 700 employees, and with the registered name “Wavecrest” becoming familiar to shoppers in Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. Over the years, expansion and development led to the addition of a preparation department also finishing, make-up and despatch departments.

After the 2nd World War many of the export markets had been lost, (some countries had become producers themselves and eventually competitors) and there were many changes in the home markets. The textile industry went into decline and many companies went to the wall. During the late 50’s advantage was taken of Government aid and re-equipment took place in 1961/1962.

In the mid to late 1960’s Marks & Spencer entered the towel market. Here was a name well known with “Quality” and value for money. In many ways this was the birth of the modern day company as we see it today. W. T. Taylor began to supply Marks & Spencer and this, as so often happened with M&S, set the standard for the U.K. towel industry to follow. The success with Marks & Spencer generated new business in other areas, British Home Stores, Sainsbury, House of Fraser to name just a few.

Mr. W. T. Taylor died in 1925 but right from the start William Taylor had been assisted by his salesman son, John and later Williams elder son, Harry. In time, the founder's grandson, granddaughter and great grand son joined the firm. Whole families of employees also spent their entire working lives at Victoria Mill.
It would be nice to be able to state that Victoria Mill continues as a family concern but in 1970 W. T. Taylor amalgamated with Stott & Smith Group, which was a member of the Coats Viyella group of companies. Over the years the work force dropped to approximately 400 people working three shifts during the week and an additional weekend shift.

In 2001 the company had a management buy out, due to Coats Viyella selling some businesses in their group, staff levels fell again to approximately 200, working two shifts and days.
The company is now called CHORTEX LIMITED. We have a growing successful towel business supplying John Lewis, British Home Stores, Amazon and other U.K. markets. Also we have a growing business exporting towels to the United States of America.

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