Always people first
And just like any successful team, this lot were in it together. Whether enjoying summer outings to Blackpool, family holiday camps in Derbyshire or Christmas galas in ball gowns and sharp suits, they were each other's biggest fans. They looked out for each other, celebrated every milestone... they even wrote about it on the pages of Humphreys Monthly Mag.
It was the sort of loyalty money simply cannot buy. And once you were part of the clan, you were in it for the long run.
Take Umbro’s first employee, Alan Bradbury. Joining the team as a bright-eyed 14 year old, he was running the cutting-room floor by age 25. Or Lillian Eyres. She started in 1926 and didn’t leave until 1980 —retiring at the tender age of 76.
People who passed through Umbro’s doors tended to stick around. Flourishing in a place that valued every second of their time.
It was perhaps fitting then, that on the company’s 25th anniversary, Harold Humphreys was presented with a gift. A clock that every factory worked chipped in for, bar none.
What Harold didn’t know was that when demands were high, the workers would often turn back its hands in order to finish the order. Giving their time back to the company which had given them the best times of their lives.
Today, this ethos still persists. And while our family may be bigger and more spread out than ever before, we still stick together. Because while nothing will ever be more important to Umbro than the people who make it, no one is bigger than our team.
