22
Apr
The young company founder continuing his family's disruptive influence
A young entrepreneur from Harrogate is carrying on a family tradition of disrupting markets – and building one of the UK’s most successful businesses of its kind in the process.
Callum MacPherson founded Sew Centre near Ripon just five years ago, and has already turned it into one of the nation’s biggest independent sewing machine dealerships.
The company’s Melmerby headquarters have just been given a £100,000 overhaul, turning the firm from an online-only dealer into a hybrid business, with sewing machine showroom and service centre.
The premises also provide a home for Barnyarns, the specialist thread retailer founded by Callum’s parents, Jon and Charlotte MacPherson, in 1986.
And it’s just around the corner from Madeira, the industry embroidery thread specialist established in 1983 by Callum’s grandparents, Iain and Sara MacPherson.
Callum, who has only just turned 30, said:
Growing up, I’d been in and around the business all my life, and I thought the market needed some disruption. I thought, in a business with a very loyal customer base, why can’t we sell them the machines too?
So I’ve turned us into a one-stop shop for thread, haberdashery and sewing machines, with full after-sales service, which is quite unique. We’re leading the charge.
Callum founded Sew Centre just before covid hit in 2020, but it was one of the few businesses to be turbocharged by the pandemic, as more people turned to hobbies and crafts during lockdown.
The company, which is a platinum dealer of Bernina and Pfaff sewing machines and accessories, now has tens of thousands of customers on its mailing list and visitors come to the shop from as far afield as Dorset and Scotland.
The sewing machine service centre currently employs two engineers.
Callum said:
We started Sew Centre as part of Barnyarns, and it grew so much that I set it up as a separate company. Now, sewing machine sales and servicing are the core of the business.
It was a real awakening when we did even better than I thought we would – we grew really quickly. I’m so proud of it – we’ve managed to grow this business out of little more than a vision, and it's succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
What makes Sew Centre’s success even more exciting for its 12 employees is that it is trading in a growth industry. Contrary to the popular image of needleworkers, the company’s target market is becoming younger, as more people upcycle old clothes, boycott fast fashion, and increasingly opt to ‘mindful’ pastimes.
The showroom.
As for the future, Callum is thinking big. He wants to increase the number of engineers in his sewing machine service centre from two to five in the next five years, he’d like to open some studio space to hold classes and courses, and he’s looking at the possibility of buying land nearby to build a second warehouse for overflow products.
He said:
We’re bursting at the seams! We’ve got big plans and are excited to keep shaking up and innovating in an ageing industry!
I’ve been very lucky. I’ve been given every opportunity to do well. So now I want to create a business that will be fit for generations of my family to come – and leave my mark on it.
One of the biggest things I want to do is make my grandparents proud.
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