Sandy Bannerman: Steven Rendle - Lovat Mill

At last week's meeting of Hawick Rotary, President Linden Warburton welcomed Stephen Rendle of Lovat Mill and an almost full house of Rotarians. Stephen, originally from Edinburgh but now living in Dumfriesshire, studied at the Borders College of Textiles in Galashiels and also graduated with an MBA. After a couple of employment opportunities he found himself as a Textile Designer with Reid and Taylor in Langholm.

In 1999, when he heard that there was a Tweed Mill for sale in Hawick, he and his fellow designer Alan Cumming decided to buy it and Lovat Mill ( formerly Teviotex) was born.Today it is one of the most modern mills in the country, having started small, with shrewd management and a "face to face " marketing policy, not employing agents, the company has prospered and now employs twenty six people. Stephen and Alan travel extensively to market their excellent tweed , meeting their customers "face to face''. Stephen showed the members a number of samples of the variety of tweeds now manufactured at Lovat Mill, together with a fascinating set of old notebooks and sample of hand woven tweeds both ancient and modern, and answered a number of questions from Rotarians ( including a most illuminating view on Brexit !), before President Linden gave a sincere vote of thanks on behalf of the enthusiastic members.