Hatters Celebrates 25th Birthday

24 Jul 2019

I Love Bramhall met up with managing director Jo Shippen and marketing director Claire Stott from local company Hatters to catch up on all the latest news, including reaching a special milestone business anniversary and a HQ relocation and expansion!

Hatters are a B2B company and specialise in three areas – promotional merchandise, print management and personalised hampers. The company was set up by MD Jo Shippen in 1994 with an ethos of providing a reliable, honest and personal service. Jo has instilled in her team the importance of delivering a service beyond their customers’ expectations, understanding the brief and audience in order to provide advice and products that amaze, and ultimately making brands look good.

Hatters are only too aware of the importance of investing in company branding and to commemorate the 25^th anniversary of Hatters, the team commissioned local Stockport artist Eric Jackson to design the front cover of the latest brochure which went on to win ‘Cover Design of the Year’ at the industry brochure launch event!

The artwork refers to the iconic hatting industry in Stockport with an image depicting the Battersby Hat Works in Offerton – a symbol of the town’s industrial heritage and a representation of Stockport’s diligent workforce.

The anniversary has also inspired the team to reflect back on the company ethos and create their own list of values called ‘What Matters to Hatters’. The charter outlines how the team would like the company to operate and treat customers, employees and anyone within their supply chain.

This charter includes truly valuing customers and consciously choosing ethical manufacturers. This list of values will help Hatters to recruit new employees based on their values moving forward.

Developing businesses need space for growth and that’s just what Hatters have done. Following a significant contract win in 2018, the company relocated to a self-contained building in September with more office space to grow the team and a warehouse to ensure the company have maximum control over product orders – which has become increasingly important as the company evolves to offer new product lines.

Hatters is proudly Stopfordian and has always been based in the borough, so finding premises that serviced the needs of the business whilst staying in the area was key for Jo – especially as the team are all Stockport residents.

hatters

The future is bright for Hatters with more product lines to be launch in the near future including a B2C hamper range utilising the skills that the team have developed over the past 9 months following the relocation.

Hatters can now provide laser engraved products including personalised hampers and wine crates for an extra special gift or token of appreciation.

Congratulations, Hatters, on 25 years in business – may your Stockport success story continue for many more!

To get in touch with Hatters Promotional Merchandise, or to find out more about the business, use the links below: