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MANUFACTURING

Southcombe Brothers own and operate two factories in the UK; a head office, tannery and warehouse situated at Stoke-Sub-Hamdon in Somerset and a factory at Shaftesbury in Dorset.

LEATHER PRODUCTION

Located at the Stoke-sub-Hamdon site and unique amongst glove manufacturers in the UK, Southcombe Brothers run their own tannery from where much of the leather for their glove production originates. By far the most technical leather in the company's wide ranging portfolio and exclusive to Southcombe Brothers is a revolutionary leather known as PYROHIDE®. This leather, supplied to Fire Fighters and Police alike offers protection against fire, heat, water, common chemicals and man made mineral fibres, it also dries soft following normal use. Hides are purchased as wet blues from domestic sources and processed through a variety of stages including shaving to ensure the correct thickness (substance), dying in computer controlled drums where the protective properties of the leather are also added and drying. A final dry drumming stage ensures softness and suppleness is retuned to the skin before they are measured and stored in preparation for production into gloves.

CUTTING & MAKING

The skins are all cut individually by experienced and skilled craftsmen who ensure the best part of the leather is selected. These leather pieces or tranks are sewn together to form the outer shells of gloves. In the making room a variety of specialised sewing machines unique to the glove trade are used including pique, prixseam, brosser and flatbed. Linings are either cut from rolls of fabric and stitched together or supplied as a full seamless knitted inners using specialist automatic Shima knitting machines. These machines knit a mix of Kevlar and glass-fibre yarn to produce a level of cut resistance unrivalled in the protective glove market.

EXAMINATION & DISPATCH

Once complete, the gloves are ironed and examined before they are finally stored in the company's warehouse ready for despatch to customers. With many styles available from stock, Southcombe Brothers are able to supply most fire, police and military glove requirements within 24 hours. In partnership with our design team and working closely with long established over seas sources, Southcombe Brothers are also able to supply an excellent range of competitively priced gloves for use across a wide number of industries from industrial work wear right through to contemporary corporate wear. Please contact us for further details.