BRITISH BUTTONS, one of the York area's long-established manufacturers, has crashed with 18 people made redundant... but all may not yet be lost.

New hopes are being raised that a southern England button factory can be lured to the city to take the place of the 74-year-old supplier to major clothes outlets like Marks & Spencer and suit makers Berwyn & Berwyn.

Shocked staff of Quality Buttons, trading as British Buttons, were called to a meeting in the plant at the Green Park Business Centre in Sutton-on-the-Forest on January 27 and told by managing director Peter Bownes that a shortage of orders had forced the firm into voluntary liquidation.

A creditors' meeting will be held at the Holiday Inn, Tadcaster Road, York, next Thursday.

Among those stunned at receiving redundancy notices were three members of the same family. They are David Wragg, 62, foreman in the barrelling department where buttons were polished and finished, and his two sons, 35-year-old Paul, in the same department, and Philip, 30, in the polyester department, making resin blanks. David started working for the company 34 years ago.

Paul, who lives with his father in White Cross Road, York, said: "It was all over very quickly. One minute there was an announcement, the next we were out of work. It ends a tradition because my late grandfather, Bob, also worked at the factory for 40 years. We're all stunned. We simply can't take it in."

However, Gerry Coop, 58-year-old production manager, has been in talks with the bosses of a button factory in the south of England which has taken over some of British Buttons' unfinished work.

They are thought to be looking to relocate - and Mr Coop is eager to lure the organisation to North Yorkshire where there would be ready-made skills .

He said: "I'm very optimistic that we can start full negotiations after next Thursday's creditors' meeting.

"Even at the end, turnover was about £500,000 and it (the company) had the huge advantage of being able to turn a specifically-designed product around within ten days. Had clients sourced buttons from the Far East the process would have taken seven weeks."

Mr Coop, who worked for British Buttons for ten years, said: "I've already asked the redundant staff to stand by. Their expertise may be needed."

Mr Coop's efforts were today backed by Dave Taylor, the York Inward Investment Board's marketing director. He said: "We are helping his efforts in every way possible."

How it all began

THE factory began life as Gansolite Ltd on former Rowntree land in Haxby Road, York, in 1929, when Dutchman Jacob Gans moved his factory from Holland to York.

It had its heyday in 1990 when it employed 70 people to manufacture an average five million buttons a week, making it the biggest button-maker in Britain.

More recently, however, the 18 staff weekly generated between 750,000 and 1.5 million buttons.

Ashley Goff and his son, Stephen, acquired British Buttons in a management buyout in 1983 and seven years later moved to Sutton-on-the-Forest to clear their 3.2 acre Haxby Road premises for office redevelopment.

At first it thrived, but then in 1998 Marks & Spencer removed the firm's preferred supplier status in a review of its materials purchasing.

One estimate is that British Buttons lost 30 to 40 per cent of its business in a year and again filed for bankruptcy.

Mr Bownes rescued the operation in 2000 in another management buyout, but the fall-off continued as some clients turned to button manufacturers abroad for their supplies.

Updated: 11:10 Thursday, February 06, 2003