Iain Smith: David Chapman - Scott & Charters

Rotary Club of Hawick welcomed David Chapman, Sales Director of Scott & Charters, as guest speaker at this week’s meeting. He gave an interesting talk about his 40 years in the knitwear industry in Hawick.

He commenced employment in the stockroom of Pringle of Scotland’s Rodono Mill in 1979. At that time Pringle produced 58,000 units of knitwear every week and employed 2,500 people. Today Scott & Charters, with a workforce of 37, produce 30,000 units of knitwear every year!

Having worked in several different departments within Pringle, in 1992 he joined the Sales departments promoting the Nick Faldo range attending up to fourteen golf tournaments each year. After a spell as UK Sales Manager for Peter Scott, he joined Scott & Charters in 2010 as UK and European Sales Manager.

Scott & Charters has been fortunate in attracting heavy investment from a London company which has resulted in the building of a new state-of-the-art factory – the first new factory to be built in Hawick in over 40 years. The company was honoured to have the Duke of Rothesay perform the official opening in early November.

David illustrated his talk with examples of the knitwear produced by Scott & Charters and explained in some detail the processes involved in the manufacture. Members’ interest was reflected in the number of questions asked which David answered fully. PP Iain Smith then gave the vote of thanks for a very informative talk.

President Linden then handed over a cheque for £450 to representatives of Act 1 Youth, the proceeds of the raffle at the recent President’s Night event. Act 1 Youth had impressed members by the quality of their entertainment at the dinner.

Hawick took part in the annual district quiz against Galashiels and came out winners 32 to 24.