Series GAN/3 - Additional papers

Identity area

Reference code

GAN/3

Title

Additional papers

Date(s)

  • 11 August 1945-8 July 1964 (Creation)

Level of description

Series

Extent and medium

2 items

Context area

Name of creator

(1929-2003)

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.

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Includes contract of employment for Terence Jeffery, 8 July 1964, and one printed address to employees by Mr J S Gans, 11 August 1945.

PLEASE REQUEST THESE ITEMS ONE WEEK IN ADVANCE - HELD IN OFFSITE STORAGE

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

Script of material

    Language and script notes

    Finding aids

    Allied materials area

    Existence and location of originals

    Existence and location of copies

    Related units of description

    Related descriptions

    Notes area

    Alternative identifier(s)

    legacy

    2013/033

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