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Cotton Traders is a British clothing company, specialising in rugby apparel and leisurewear, based in Altrincham, Cheshire. It was founded in 1987 by by former England rugby union captains Fran Cotton and Steve Smith.

The company started out in a small room next to Altrincham railway station, supplying rugby shirts via mail order using advertisements in the Sunday newspapers. The business was making an annual turnover of £2million in just two years [1].

As the company grew, additional ranges were added. These now cover leisurewear and casual clothes for both men and women, footwear, household textiles, and accessories.

The site is now split into three main buildings in Altrincham and a warehouse in Leeds. One building is Cotton Traders House which is responsible for the management of the company, and a call centre further down the road deals with most customer service and the placing of the orders. In 2006, Neptune House, a vacant office building opposite the head office, was purchased. Head office departments are now split between Cotton Traders House and Neptune House.

Today, Cotton Traders generates a turnover in excess of £50 million a year, with approx. 600 employees across the UK and many more employed worldwide by its suppliers. Cotton Traders mail order business now has approximately 1,600,000 customers on its database, and produces 27 different editions of the catalogue each year, resulting in the dispatch of approximately 100,000 parcels a month.

In July 2006, 19 years after its launch, Cotton Traders implemented a new computer system to enhance efficiency of operations covering all aspects of the company. However, the implementation of this computerised system caused a great deal of disruption to the ordering and customer service departments of the company, which now (Jan 2007) is thought to have been overcome. In response to this, the company declared 2007 the 'Year of Service'.

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