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The man with a mission

Successful Bangladeshi selling Britishness abroad

The Guardian Online
When George Osborne told the Institute of Directors that small companies felt "too daunted" to export to countries outside Europe, he could have cited the story of Mamun Chowdhury's duffel coats as Mamun Chy an inspiration to Britain's manufacturers.
Mamun has made it by, as he puts it, "selling Britishness" - competing in the international rag trade from a small factory in the East End of London.
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Arriving in London from Bangladesh in 1991, virtually penniless but with deep ambition, the clothing entrepreneur began his career in the UK by importing ready-made shirts from his home country.
A few years later he decided to concentrate on making duffel coats. "That's my character, I always try to do something different," Mamun said. "No one else was making duffel coats."
Memories of the 1971 war that saw Bangladesh emerge as an independent state from Pakistan helped shape his desire to make it in Britain (although the US had been his intended destination). Hundreds of thousands of people died, 10 million refugees fled and Mamun's family business was destroyed.
"It left an incredible scar," said Mamun. "I was determined to succeed. If Michael Marks [of Marks & Spencer) could do it, why not me?"
But competition was fierce, especially at a time when the clothing manufacturing trade in the East End was in steep decline as manufacturers moved offshore - ironically, to places such as Bangladesh - so Mamun refined his strategy by making expensive duffel coats. In 2002 he set up a company called London Tradition with Rob Huson - who had worked in textiles with companies such as Marks & Spencer and Aquascutum - making
coats that start at £300 and sell for as much as £1,500.
These high-end coats are a far cry from the simple garment that kept sailors warm in the first world war and was worn by Field Marshal Montgomery, who used it as a prop to encourage the troops to think that he was one of them. The London Tradition coats come in colours ranging from camel to purple and scarlet red, in various lengths and patterns such as tartan, and have proved to be particularly popular in Japan for shoppers who want a little piece of England.
The company now exports 30,000 to 35,000 coats a year, 90% of its output, and has seen overseas sales rise by 865% between 2007-2013. In July this year the company won a Queen's award for international trade and there has been praise from the likes of Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, his predecessor Ken Livingstone, and George Osborne, the chancellor.
Today, London Tradition operates from a factory in Hackney Wick, close to the Olympic park. The area was once home to a thriving clothing and footwear industry that employed more than 15,000 people in the early 1900s. As late as the 1960s Hackney was noted for its large factories for men's tailoring, shirts and clothing accessories. But the industry all but disappeared
from the area in the 1970s and 80s, during Britain's general industrial decline.
Now Hackney Wick is enjoying a revival. It is full of twentysomethings attracted by affordable rents, catered for by an increasing number of bars and cafes, and has its own arts festival - while London Tradition employs 100 people to produce on average 1,000 coats a week.
"Manufacturing used to thrive in east London, where high-quality garments were made. Now there are so few manufacturers left," Mamun said. "London Tradition has local people continuing that heritage, with skills being handed down generation to generation. 'Made in England' is highly valued and I want to spread the revitalisation of the area, but it is not possible unless our clothes are of world class standard."
The irony of being an immigrant heading a successful manufacturing company in east London making duffel coats for export is not lost on Mamun. But asked whether he had considered moving manufacturing to Bangladesh, where costs would be much cheaper, he said such a step would undercut a brand that relies on its London roots to sell its duffel coats. "We are selling Britishness," he pointed out. "It would be suicidal to move away from here."