Below is an article which was featured in our local newspaper.

"In God we trust for a thriving niche market."

When Graham and Mary Waddington decided to sell Turley Textiles Ltd, they wanted to ensure that the small workforce would not end up on the dole. Despite having a number of offers for the business, it was obvious that all the prospective buyers would do was to gobble up the firm and ditch the staff, so when a young couple - Paul and Sue Jowett - came along and wanted to run the business along the same lines and with the same staff, the project went ahead.

Graham and Mary have spent the last three years preparing Paul and Sue for the job ahead and they will be taking over the firm in January 2005 when Graham and Mary step down.

They will take over a speciality business with links to the Church, the Law, Academia, the Theatre, Masonic garment makers and other areas.

Back in 1980, during a period of severe decline in Bradford's Textile Industry, Graham Waddington was made redundant by Booth Bros., of Little Germany, Bradford, a firm which exported 100% of its cloth. Despite the prevailing climate of shut downs and bankruptcies, the couple felt called by God to launch out in their own business.

"We did not have any customers" said Mr Waddington. "We could not afford to travel the world to contact customers who we had dealt with previously, as we did not have any money, so we had to go knocking on doors of firms in the Home Trade. People asked to see our range, we did not have a range to show but we did say that we could make anything - and it started from there.

They started the business at home and eventually moved into a tiny warehouse. After five years, the church going Waddingtons had decided to look at supplying Ecclesiastical wear after discovering that most religious regalia took a mini-eternity to deliver.

They started selling cloth and trimmings to firms which made church robes, gradualy expanding the range whilst ensuring the price was right. Along with cloth, the couple began producing braids, trimmings and embroideries - all on other people's looms, a tradition which continues.

Academic and legal gowns seemed a natural progression. They were then approached by people who made garments for the freemasons.

The academic side boomed in the late 1980's and early 90's as Polytechnics turned into Universities. "We had to be very careful about shade" said Mr Waddington. "If you get a group of Oxford dons, you have to make sure that they all look the same."We've fallen out with dyers  because they couldn't maintain the shade we wanted. It's that attention to detail that's kept us at the forefront."

The Waddingtons rapidly realised that men of the cloth were not necessarily men in black. Cassocks are also in blue, purple green and gold. 

By 1988 with the home market covered, they plunged into exports and found church customers in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Then they got a foothold in the lucrative US market, where priests and pastors were perhaps a shade more style-conscious.

They were more adventurous colour wise and valued exclusive fabrics produced just for them.In the late 1990's, Turley Textiles' New Century range made an appearance in American places of worship.

These days the firms fabrics can be found in every UK Cathedral. Even flamboyant South African church leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been clothed in Turley fabrics.

Like most Bradford textiles businesses, the firm has thrived by developing its niche markets and staying small. There are only four full time and four part time staff. That will remain the same when the Jowetts take over. With a turnover of half a million pounds plus, exports account for between a third and a half of all sales.

"We are the largest firm of its type in Britain" said Mr Waddington. "But how we would rate on a world scale I do not know"

Paul Jowett has a solid textiles background. Like his predecessor he is wary of over expansion: "we don't want to get into the dog eat dog world of men's and ladies' suitings."

He wants to develop the Theatrical side of the business such as fabrics for pantomime costumes. "There's still potential for custom made brocades and braids in that market" he said. The Jowetts would like to eventually see the business passed on to their four young children.

" When people say there is not a future for the textile trade, that's rubbish" said Mr Jowett. "In twenty years time I'd like to think we'd still be here, growing stronger and taking it into the next generation." "There will always be religion, churches, vicars and choirs"