History

A member of the Franklins Group, Franklins International Ltd. (originally William Franklin & Sons Ltd.) was founded in Coventry as a silk weaver, in 1835. It was based at Much Park Street, Coventry, and after marriage to a Franklin was in the possession of the Clarke family from 1913.

Silk ribbon weaving had been established in Coventry and neighbouring villages, from the early 18th century. In the mid 20th century, different locations throughout England, specialized in different products, and Coventry was known for excelling in masonic and military ribbons, school hatbands and badges, and above all in name labels and name tapes.

In the early 1960's William Franklin & Son Ltd. employed 200 people in two plants in Coventry and Nuneaton. A subsidiary company, Wm. Franklin & Son (NI) Ltd., was opened in Banbridge, Northern Ireland in 1961. They were installed in a new 19,000 sq ft. factory built by the Northern Ireland Ministry of Commerce. This was later, in the mid 1970's, extended to a 35,000 sq. ft. complex, the Company is one of the largest dedicated woven, sew on badge suppliers in Europe. 

After a management buy out in the 1970's Franklin's is now locally owned by people from the Banbridge area.

Franklin's Today 
The company supplies youth organisations, the military and emergency services, commercial companies, charities and manufacturers at local, national and international levels within the sports, industrial, fashion, careerwear and promotional markets, and services markets all over the UK and Ireland.

Quality is extremely important to us, both in the products we produce and in the service that we provide.

Accredited to ISO 9001:2000 all of our employees are fully trained and focused on delivering quality products, on time and at competitive prices to all our customers.

For additional confidence Franklin's badges and labels are tested for harmful substances according to Oeko-Tex Standard 100. The Oeko-Tex label indicates to interested end users the additional benefits of tested safety for skin-friendly clothing and other textiles. In this way, the test label provides an important decision-making tool when purchasing textiles. We feel this is especially important as many of our products are used by children.

Our objectives are made possible by our policy of continual investment in both new technology and staff training. In recent years Franklin's have also established a strategic pertnership with an ethical overseas partner to bring even greater value to our customers. You can be assured of a personal service at Franklin's where our sales team is happy to discuss your exact requirements in detail and monitor your order from design to despatch.

Operating to high standards throughout, the Company enjoys an enviable reputation among both customers and competitors for manufacturing a quality product supported by an efficient customer service.

This year, 2010, Franklins celebrates 175 years in business.

"Tradition does not mean that the living are dead; it means the dead are living."

   Harold Macmillan (1894-1986)