Type Public limited company Headquarters Uxbridge, United Kingdom Founded 1755 | Products Textile arts related Revenue 1.49 billion USD (2015) | |
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Traded as LSE: COA
ASX: CGW
NZX: COA Industry Consumer and intermediate goods Key people Mike Clasper, Chairman
Rajiv Sharma, CEO
Simon Boddie, CFO Net income US$(39.4) million (2015) Stock price COA (LON) 56.00 GBX -2.50 (-4.27%)7 Mar, 5:28 PM GMT - Disclaimer Founder David Alliance, Baron Alliance Subsidiaries Guinness Peat Group, GPG Finance Plc | ||
Coats Group plc is a British multi-national company. It is the world's largest manufacturer and distributor of sewing thread and supplies, and the second-largest manufacturer of zips and fasteners, after YKK.
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History
In 1755 James and Patrick Clark began a loom equipment and silk thread business in Paisley, Scotland. In 1806 Patrick Clark invented a way of twisting cotton threads together to substitute for silk threads which were unavailable due to France's blockade of Great Britain and opened the first plant for manufacturing the cotton thread in 1812. In 1864 the Clark family began manufacturing in Newark, New Jersey, U.S. as the Clark Thread Co.
In 1802 James Coats set up a weaving business, also in Paisley. In 1826 he opened a cotton mill at Ferguslie to produce his own thread and, when he retired in 1830, his sons, James & Peter, took up the business under the name of J. & P. Coats. The firm expanded internationally, particularly to the USA. In 1890 Coats listed on the London Stock Exchange, with a capital base of £5.7M.
In 1952 J. & P. Coats and the Clark Thread Co. merged. In 1961 a merger with Patons and Baldwins created Coats Patons. In 1986 a merger with Vantona Viyella created Coats Viyella. In 2003 Guinness Peat took Coats private and in 2015 it returned to the market as 'Coats Group'.
Controversy
In 2007 Coats was fined €110 million by the European Commission for participation in cartels with Prym, 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.