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| Company type | Public limited company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Consumer andintermediate goods |
| Founded | 1755; 270 years ago (1755) |
| Headquarters | London, England, UK |
Key people | David Gosnell[1]Chairman David Paja,CEO Jackie Callaway,CFO |
| Products | Textile related |
| Revenue |  US$1,500.9 million (2024)[2] |
| US$269.6 million (2024)[2] | |
| US$99.7 million (2024)[2] | |
| Website | www |
Coats Group plc is a British multinational company. The company provides products, including apparel, accessory and footwear threads, structural components for footwear and accessories, fabrics, yarns, and software applications.
Coats is listed on theLondon Stock Exchange and is a constituent of theFTSE 250 Index andFTSE4Good Index. Revenues in 2023 were $1.4bn.
Paisley, Scotland became a hub for the textile industry in the United Kingdom. In 1755 James and Patrick Clark began aloom equipment andsilk thread business.[3] In 1806, Patrick Clark invented a way of twisting strands ofcotton together to substitute for silk that was unavailable due to the Frenchblockade of Great Britain. He opened the first plant for manufacturing the cotton thread in 1812.[3]
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In 1802 James Coats set up his ownweaving in Paisley. In 1826 he opened a cotton mill atFerguslie to produce his own thread[4] and, when he retired in 1830, his sons, James & Peter, took up the business under the name of J. & P. Coats.[4]
In 1890 Coats listed on the London Stock Exchange,[4] with capital of £5.7 million.[4]
The firm expanded internationally, particularly to the United States. In 1869, J. & P. Coats signed a contract with the Conant Thread Company inPawtucket, Rhode Island, which entitled them to use of the Conant company’s manufacturing facilities.[5] This move towards local production in the United States was primarily driven by high tariffs on imported goods, including thread.[5]
In 1893, J. & P. Coats absorbed the Conant Thread Company and assumed direct control over thePawtucket plant, under the management of James Coats (1834–1913) and Alfred M. Coats (1869–1942).[5] In 1896 J. and P. Coats acquired controlling interests in the firms of Clark and Co, Jonas Brook and Brothers, and James Chadwick and Brother.[6] The Clark family had manufacturing sites inNewark, New Jersey,U.S. as the Clark Thread Co. since 1864.[3]
J & P Coats moved their base of operations to Delaware in 1951 and officially closed the plant in Pawtucket in November of 1964.[7]
In 1952 J. & P. Coats and the Clark Thread Co. merged to become Coats & Clark's.[8] In 1961 a merger withPatons and Baldwins created Coats Patons.[4] In 1986 a merger with Vantona Viyella created Coats Viyella.[9] In 2003Guinness Peat took Coatsprivate and in 2015 the business returned to the market as "Coats Group".[10]
Coats was fined €110 million by theEuropean Commission in 2007 for participation incartels withPrym, YKK, and other companies to fix and manipulate the prices of zips and other fasteners, and of the machinery to make them. One of the cartels ran for twenty-one years. An appeal in 2012 to the General Court of the European Union was dismissed, and the fine upheld.[11][12]
The company acquired the footwear components business, Texon, in July 2022,[13] and the footwear reinforcement components business, Rhenoflex, in August 2022.[14]
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