History

Albert Hartley was one of the original directors of Albert Hartley Limited that was founded in May 1911 as cotton sheeting weavers, becoming chairman in 1915.

After the Second World War, Albert Hartleys was taken over and expanded by V.E. Haighton Ltd., a company that specialized in bleaching, dying, and finishing narrow width cloth. Haightons established hemming and raising departments in the early 1950's and began to weave cloth widths of up to 94".

By the mid 1950's, Monthera Fabrics, specialists in hand screen-printing, had started doing commission printing for Albert Hartleys. This was the company's first direct involvement with textile printing.

In 1963, a flat bed printing machine, capable of printing cloth up to 92" wide, followed by a rotary metal screen Duplex, capable of printing up to 72" wide were installed. During this period Albert Hartley established Gaiety Fabric Ltd. as a retail outlet and Textile Screenmakers to manufacture silk screens.

All three companies joined the Vantona Group in 1968 but the following year the subsidiary companies were phased out. Albert Hartleys now operated under three divisions: Printing, Manufacturing, and Sales, and concentrated only on printing and make-up.

The company underwent many changes from that date and in 1992 Albert Harteys became part of the homewares division of Coats Viyella Plc. By 1994, the company had 4 rotary print machines, a flat bed printer, and 2 sample printing tables. The following year, 2 laser engravers, one with a CAD (computer aided design) system for color separation, were added.

In 1996, the hemming department was shut down and the production departments restructured. Subsequently a new effluent plant was installed, as well as an automatic color mixer, a chemical mixer, and screen washing equipment.

In September 2000, Coats Viyella put Albert Hartleys up for sale and in 2001 R. Soper Limited bought the company.