Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- c.1930-March 1988 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
6 items
Context area
Name of creator
Administrative history
Gansolite Ltd established a factory on former Rowntree land in Haxby Road, York, in 1929, when Dutchman Jacob Gans moved his factory from Holland to the city. The factory produced buttons for a number of commercial clothing manufacturers. In 1983 the firm, then trading as British Buttons, was acquired by Ashley Goff and his son Stephen as part of a management buyout.
By 1990 British Buttons employed 70 people and manufactured an average of five million buttons a week. At that point it was the biggest selling button maker in Britain. That same year, production moved to Sutton on the Forest so that the Haxby Road premises in York could be cleared for redevelopment.
During the 1990s British button maufacturing began to go into decline. With the firm losing Marks & Spencer as a client in 1998 following a review of their materials purchasing, 30 to 40 per cent of business was lost in a year. This resulted in the firm filing for bankruptcy, before being rescued by Peter Bownes in 2000. With a continued decline in customers due to cheaper options being produced abroad, by 2003 the firm employed 18 staff and was manufacturing between 750,000 and 1.5 million buttons a week.
On 27 January 2003 staff were told that due to the the decline in orders the company had been placed in voluntary liquidation.
Repository
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Includes one photograph album with black and white images, showing external and internal views of the factory (including employees); one black and white image showing an unspecified couple (possibly Mr Terence Jeffery and wife); one contract of employment for Mr Terence Jeffery, Assistant Company Secretary dated 8 July 1964; and two newspaper cuttings.
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Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Open
Material is available subject to the usual terms and conditions of access to Archives and Local History collections.
Conditions governing reproduction
Images are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.
Language of material
- English