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1850-1981
Manufacturer of workwear, shirts, overalls and jeans. Established in 1850 with a factory at Mount Vernon, Liverpool. The company was wound up in 1949 and again in 1981.
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1888-1984
In 1888 George Key set up his own mail order and uniform business on the second floor of his father's drapers shop in Rugeley, Staffordshire. Later that year George introduced a new type of coat made of thick, hard-wearing material, which he had developed for the navvies who were building the Manchester Ship Canal. The coat became known as the Donkey Jacket named after the donkey engines that some of the navvies worked on.
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2015-
7L is a Manchester-based performance and functional menswear label. The name and designs are inspired by the US military's Extended Cold Weather Clothing System which consists of multiple layer options for the wearer in order to fully protect them in different low temperature environments.
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2003-2016
RFD BEAUFORT LTDP. Frankenstein & Sons Ltd 1854–1971 RFD Ltd 1920–2003
RFD Beaufort Ltd 2003–present (Survitec Group Ltd)
The company has its origins in waterproof textiles. In 1854 Philip Frankenstein founded P. Frankenstein & Sons Ltd in Manchester and the company developed rubberized fabrics. From the 1940s it produced specialized safety flying and survival equipment. By the 1940s–1950s they had acquired Beaufort (Air-Sea) Equipment Ltd of Birkenhead as a division of the firm, and in advertising referred to the joint company as Frankenstein-Beaufort. P. Frankenstein & Sons Ltd were acquired by Slater, Walker Securities in 1970 and then became part of Allied Polymer Group in 1971.
RFD Ltd was founded in 1920 by engineer Reginald Foster Dagnall (1888–1942) to manufacture floatation equipment. Dagnall had been experimenting with constructing inflatable boats from before the First World War and working for manufacturers making airships. The company invented the first inflatable life raft in 1932. Based in Godalming, Surrey, RFD expanded rapidly during the Second World War, becoming the first company to produce a single-seater life raft in a dinghy pack fitted to a parachute pack for all fighter pilots of the Royal Air Force.
In April 2003, RFD Beaufort Ltd was formed by the merger of Survitec subsidiaries RFD Ltd and Beaufort (Air-Sea) Equipment Ltd. The company was acquired by the Survitec Group which used the name RFD Beaufort as a brand, later dropping Beaufort. They continue to use RFD as a brand for their marine safety and survival technology, including inflatable life rafts.
Sources: RFD Beaufort Ltd; Rubber & Plastic News; Godalming Museum; Harold Nockolds, Rescue from Disaster: The History of the RFD Group (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1980); Grace’s Guide to British Industrial History; aviationancestry.co.uk; Survitec Group Ltd.
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1993-
Label specialising in menswear set up by designer Jeff Griffin in 1993. Griffin is a graduate of Central Saint Martins School of Art & Design.