Coats Group

Paisley, Scotland became a hub for the textile industry in the United Kingdom. In 1755 James and Patrick Clark began a loom equipment and silk thread business.^[3] In 1806, Patrick Clark invented a way of twisting strands of cotton together to substitute for silk that was unavailable due to the French blockade of Great Britain. He opened the first plant for manufacturing the cotton thread in 1812.^[3]

In 1802 James Coats set up his own weaving in Paisley. In 1826 he opened a cotton mill at Ferguslie to produce his own thread^[4] and, when he retired in 1830, his sons, James & Peter, took up the business under the name of J. & P. Coats.^[4]

In 1890 Coats listed on the London Stock Exchange,^[4] with capital of £5.7 million.^[4]

The firm expanded internationally, particularly to the United States. In 1869, J. & P. Coats signed a contract with the Conant Thread Company in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, which entitled them to use of the Conant company’s manufacturing facilities.^[5] This move towards local production in the United States was primarily driven by high tariffs on imported goods, including thread.^[5]

In 1893, J. & P. Coats absorbed the Conant Thread Company and assumed direct control over the Pawtucket plant, under the management of James Coats (1834–1913) and Alfred M. Coats (1869–1942).^[5] In 1896 J. and P. Coats acquired controlling interests in the firms of Clark and Co, Jonas Brook and Brothers, and James Chadwick and Brother.^[6] The Clark family had manufacturing sites in Newark, New Jersey, U.S. as the Clark Thread Co. since 1864.^[3]

J & P Coats moved their base of operations to Delaware in 1951 and officially closed the plant in Pawtucket in November of 1964.^[7]

In 1952 J. & P. Coats and the Clark Thread Co. merged to become Coats & Clark's.^[8] In 1961 a merger with Patons and Baldwins created Coats Patons.^[4] In 1986 a merger with Vantona Viyella created Coats Viyella.^[9] In 2003 Guinness Peat took Coats private and in 2015 the business returned to the market as "Coats Group".^[10]

Coats was fined €110 million by the European Commission in 2007 for participation in cartels with Prym, YKK, and other companies to fix and manipulate the prices of zips and other fasteners, and of the machinery to make them. One of the cartels ran for twenty-one years. An appeal in 2012 to the General Court of the European Union was dismissed, and the fine upheld.^[11][12]

The company acquired the footwear components business, Texon, in July 2022,^[13] and the footwear reinforcement components business, Rhenoflex, in August 2022.^[14]

• Thomas Coats (1809–1883)
• Sir Peter Coats of Auchendrane (1808–1890)
• Sir James Coats, 1st Baronet (1834–1913)
• Sir Thomas Glen-Coats, 1st Baronet (1846–1922)
• Conant Thread-Coats & Clark Mill Complex District in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
• Alfred M. Coats (1869–1942)

• Coats, Brian (2013). Seams Sewn Long Ago. The Story of Coats The Threadmakers. CreateSpace. ISBN 978-1490408262.
• Kim, Dong-Woon (Autumn 1994). From a Family Partnership to a Corporate Company: J. & P. Coats, Thread Manufacturers. Vol. 25. Textile History. pp. 185–225.
• Kim, Dong-Woon (Winter 1998). The British multinational enterprise in the United States before 1914: The case of J. & P. Coats. Vol. 72. Business History Review. pp. 523–52.
• Kim, Dong-Woon (Winter 1995). J. & P. Coats in Tsarist Russia, 1889–1917. Vol. 69. Business History Review. pp. 465–494.
• Kininmonth, Kirsten W. (October 2006). The growth, development and management of J. & P. Coats Ltd, c.1890–1960: An analysis of strategy and structure. Vol. 48. Business History. pp. 551–579.
• Knox, William W. (1995). Hanging by a Thread: The Scottish Cotton Industry, c. 1850–1914. Carnegie. ISBN 978-1859360118.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Coats Group.

• Official website
• Works by Coats and Clark at Faded Page (Canada)
• Documents and clippings about Coats Group in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
• Boston Public Library Thread Trade Cards Collection