Important Announcement: D.C. Dalgliesh Ltd

[xman]

Thank-you for bringing this to our attention. I will do what I can.

[chrisupyonder]

Nick.
I have sent a copy of your post by email to our local highland dress company in Wick. Caithness in the hope they can help.

Hang in there.

[figheadair]

Nice looking new website although I notice it continues to perpetuate the Reproduction myth. There are a couple of other errors on that page too:

The Jacobites weren't fighting 'the English Forces at Prestonpans, Falkirk and Edinburgh' but rather the Hanoverian forces of the Government.

and

It was the Battle of Culloden, fought on Drumossie Moor/Muir and not the Battle of Culloden Moor

and

'The Act of Proscription passed by Parliament. This "proscribed or banned the making or wearing of Tartan clothes'. No, the Act never proscribed the making of tartan clothes per se. It banned men other than those in His Majesty's Forces from putting on Highland clothes or any others made of tartan.

[AKScott]

Nick,

Something I would like to see is the color palletes.

The trouble with looking at tartan swatches online is the images don't tend to have any context to them. Can you maybe throw down some hanks or skeins or whatever of typical thread colors on a neutral background like a piece of wood or a grey sheet, and then arrange some other familiar items in the same picture?

Dixon- Ticonderoga #2 is a very well known yellow pencil in the states, I would be happy to send you a box of them.

A chunk of wax from a Maker's Mark bourbon bottle, very well known red in the states.

A very well known blue is the box that Reynolds wrap Aluminum foil comes in, every grocery store in the states carries it.

If you can host some images like that, with the caveat that exact colors of course will vary from dye lot to dye lot, I think a lot of foks on this side of the pond would find it helpful.

In my case, I proposed on November 21. By December 15th my bride was comitted to me wearing a kilt to the ceremony. I ordered swatches from three different vendors the last half of December.

Scotweb was closed however many days for Hogmany before my order shipped, but you got my swatch to my door in about three weeks. And you smoked the vendor in second place for timely swatch delivery, absolutely spanked them.

The trouble was co-ordinating the bridesmaid's dresses with the colors in the kilt. We settled on Loch Carron Strome without having a swatch in hand, did our best with the image on the LC website and probably would have chosen a different color cloth for the bridesmaid's dresses if the swatch was here.

I am confident a lot of your business is wedding business, and I am confident if I ever again marry I will not sign up for six months of being engaged again. Six months is _barely_ long enough to order swatches and then have the kilt and bridesmaids dresses made simultaneously.

My hunch is if the bride to be can "see" the colors that are going to be used in the groom's kilt she can have the bride'smaids dresses made without having to wait for a swatch to come in. That will allow you to sell to couples getting married in 8-12 weeks for the kilt plus X many days to weave, rather than a six month engagement being barely long enough to get the groom's kilt and maid's dresses coordinated.

FWIW these are three major colors from the Loch Carron Strome modern pallette, in a context almost any American can work with for wedding planning.



As illustrated, someone who doesn't know what a D-T #2 pencil looks like has no idea what any of those colors really are. But someone who has a D-T #2 in a cup on the desk beside the computer monitor will know exactly.

The swatch images on scotweb are as good as any other on the internet and better than most. No need to reinvent that wheel.

I have five different swatches in my house now of my clan modern red and clan modern green. I haven't the foggiest idea what the ancient green would really look like in person.

If I were to roll by the Dagliesh website and see the ancient colors of threads arranged on a context I could relate to, have that open in one window and the scotweb swatch open in another window, well, I would probably bookmark the Dagliesh page.

Really I am trying to pick between clan hunting muted and clan green ancient for my next kilt. Do I really have to spend another $100 on swatches and wait two months before I can make a decision?

M2c. Providing Olde World quality on an American timetable is going to be a tall order.

[AKScott]

Nick, just checked out the new website. If you have so much work backed up that new custom orders take six to eight weeks to execute _and_ the business is going bankrupt you have a fundamental problem in the supply chain, operations or logistics that no amount of new orders is going to overcome.

I don't envy you.

Your looms could produce how many yards each day under ideal conditions?

Your daily overhead is what number?

So assuming 100% equipment and staff efficiency (that ain't going to happen), and two months of production presold on the books, to break even you have to sell cloth at $/GBP_____ per meter.

You don't have to tell me what the number is, but clearly that selling price is a higher number than the current going rate.

I think I better call Matt and get my order in before you do what you have to do.

[Jock Scot]

One has to have huge respect, particularly in the stringent financial climate that we live in at the moment, for those who "put their money where their mouth is". Good luck to you sir.

[Downunder Kilt]

Nick, I have ordered several kilts from special order tartan woven by D.C. Dalgliesh. I congratulate you and your partner on taking the plunge in acquiring the firm. I forward all my best wishes that you can turn the firms woes around and make, what I believe, the best scottish weaving firm, a viable entity.

[English Bloke]

Hats off to you Nick. Great thing you are doing. I wish you every success.

[rsvpiper]

Hats off to you Nick. Great thing you are doing. I wish you every success.

I second that

[Nick Fiddes]

Thanks again to one and all for your heartwarming support...

@figheadair - I'll look at some of the historical wordings where I can, though I'm wary of entering into contentious debates which I don't feel competent to reach judgement. If you'd care to PM me, I'd prefer to carry on such a discussion privately where it wouldn't fill us the thread.

@AKScott - (1) thanks for your colour suggestions. I'm already looking at ways to improve this aspect of the business, so your thoughts are welcome. Obviously producing swatches for special weaves isn't realistic. But I'm hoping to introduce a yarn sample service, and we're also intending to photograph all the yarns. So your idea of using a known object to help calibrate is valuable. We do have other ideas too which would be great if we can make them work, but right now i'll have to say watch this space until I'm clear how possible they are.

@AKScott - (2) Yes, you're spot on. We do believe the mill has been underpricing for some time, and prices will have to rise (not least since the price of raw wool has almost doubled in the past year alone). We obviously have to be careful and realistic about this, and of course no one likes price rises. (I'm told there were grumbles when they raised prices by 5% not long ago, but clearly that's not enough.) Overall we feel that it's been a fundamental mistake to produce such a speciality product and then try to compete on price with the modern mills. At this point I can't say when or by how much prices will rise, as we haven't yet had time to do the sums you mention. But we know that's just what we have to do. So to anyone thinking of ordering, I'd suggest doing so soon.