Joseph Hepworth (tailor)
Joseph Hepworth (1834–1911) was the clothing manufacturer who founded Joseph Hepworth & Son, a company which grew to become the United Kingdom's largest clothing manufacturer and which is now known as Next plc.
Career[]
Born at Lindley in Huddersfield, Joseph Hepworth left school at ten to join George Walker's Mill in Leeds in 1844.[1]
In 1864 Joseph Hepworth went into business with James Rhodes, his wife's brother, as a tailor in Leeds.[1] By 1881 their factory in Wellington Street employed 500 people and, unusually, made all three pieces of a gentlemen's three-piece suit.[1] In the 1880s they innovated further establishing shops to sell their suits direct to the public.[1] By 1890 they employed 2,000 operatives who sold their stock through 107 shops.[1]
Joseph Hepworth died in Harrogate in 1911 and within 6 years of his death Joseph Hepworth & Son was the largest clothing manufacturer in the United Kingdom.[1]
Family[]
Hepworth married Sarah Rhodes in 1855 they went on to have three sons and four daughters.[1]
References[]
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- 1834 births
- 1911 deaths
- English businesspeople in fashion
- English businesspeople in retailing
- 19th-century English businesspeople
- People from Huddersfield
- English Methodists
- Businesspeople from Yorkshire
- British tailors
- English business biography stubs