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Our first Ladybird items |
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On this page we celebrate the achievements of the Pasold Family, who built the Ladybird brand and established it as a firm favourite around the world. We're honoured and proud to be able to tell the story.
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 With special thanks to Eric W. Pasold obe |
Today Ladybird is Britain's leading clothing brand for the under fives, but it all started with an order for Directoire Knickers, back in 1932. | |||
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| Eric W. Pasold, OBE, son of the founder of the Company that became Ladybird, includes many references to Woolworths in his excellent book "Ladybird Ladybird", which is subtitled "A story of private enterprise" (Manchester University Press, 1977), The book describes in exquisite detail the occasion when he and Pasold's London agent, A.C. Hurst, made their first sale to Woolworths' Buyer, Herbert Cue. | ||||
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| For some time Pasolds has been watching the Woolworths phenomenon. They found the sheer scale of the business, and the breadth of the product offering, quite daunting. They would never consider such a small supplier, would they? | ||||
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| One day a chance encounter with old friend Salo Rand, who had just secured an order for £1,000 of Galbonz Jewellery from Woolworths, persuaded Eric Pasold and A.C. Hurst to give Woolies another try. | ||||
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arranged a meeting with Herbert Cue, the Woolworths Textile Buyer (which included clothing at the time). It was a
long-standing tradition at the time that a Woolworth buyer never turned
a potential supplier away if they were in the office. If a
supplier was prepared to wait, he would be given a fair hearing before
going home time.
Herbert Cue was new to the role. Until recently he had been Superintendent (Area Manager) for the London Stores, and was just learning about fashion. Eric Pasold takes up the story. |
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| A few days later Mr. Hurst and I sat in the wood-panelled waiting room of Woolworth's palatial head office building in New Bond Street, watching callers being escorted by a uniformed commissionaire through a number of different doors, until our turn came. The textile buyer was a Mr. Cue, a well spoken, friendly man, who waved us into comfortable armchairs. From the way he fingered our simples it was obvious that he knew nothing about Directoire knickers, and he was honest enough to admit it. | ||||
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"What
do you make of these, Miss Owen ? Do you think we could sell them
? " he asked, tossing the garments to his secretary.
"At 4s (20p) a dozen they seem remarkably good value, Mr. Cue, I'm sure they would sell", replied Miss Owen. I could have hugged her. |
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| The following week Mr. Cue appeared unexpectedly at Langley. Could he look over the factory ? Proudly I showed him round ... I liked Mr. Cue very much and hoped we would be able to do business together. But a month passed without me hearing another word from him, and I had almost given up hoping when Miss Owen phoned and asked me to call again. | ||||
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"I can pay you 4s 3d (21.25p) per dozen for assorted sizes and colours ...I've written out a starting order for 8,000 dozen. The slip (individual store repeat) orders will add up to another 20,000 dozen during the season, I would guess." He said it was if he were ordering a cup of tea. "Make sure you deliver on time if you want to do regular business with us." | |||
| "I
could hardly believe my ears. Twenty-eight thousand dozen, and at
3d more than I had asked ! Mr. Cue smiled. "I
hope you're pleased, and if you justify the confidence I have in you
there'll be plenty more orders coming !"
Pleased ? He made me the happiest man in the whole of London! Now our factory would hum. |
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Over-paying
for the first purchase was Herbert Cue's trademark. In his
experience suppliers were inclined to under-charge for the first item
they sold in
order to secure Woolworth's business, often cutting too deeply. Cue
believed it was much better to have an unlimited source of supply if the
item lifted off, than the risk that the supplier would not be able to
sustain the price for the whole season.
It was a good tactic - and one that meant that for the next fifty years Pasolds (later renamed Ladybird) always gave Woolies first choice on their new items, much to the annoyance of Marks and Spencer. Before long Pasolds were supplying many items to Woolworths. Boys' pants, girls, vests, drawers, children's bodices, cami-knickers, tunic frocks, swimming trunks, women's aprons, gloves, face cloths, pram covers, babies' bonnets, bootees, crawlers, leggings and bedsocks were all tested and most were listed from time to time. While Pasold would have liked more orders, he notes how welcome a big order from Woolworths was and how much easier it was to do business with Woolworth than Marks & Spencer during the 1930s. The best seller in the 1930s were Bravisco artificial silk underwear, which sold in huge quantities. |
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| Securing underwear orders from Woolworths was dependent on Pasolds getting hold of cheap sources of raw materials. Whichever manufacturer cornered the market in so-called "sub-standard artificial silk" (which was actually premium quality, but surplus production from the manufacturers), tended to get the Woolworths order. Woolworths could sell hundreds of thousands of pairs of knickers in a season. | ||||
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Opening
gambit - transforming the High Street Flotation
on the London Stock Exchange ----- Fashion
overview 1909-2004 Paper
patterns, cotton and thread Legend
of the Scarlet Ladybird |
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