In My View by Eric Musgrave: It’s good to all club together
Working From Home. Self-service. Self-checkout. Buying off a screen. Automated warehouses. Driverless cars. AI everywhere.
Prevailing technological and employment changes seem determined that we will end up as solitary characters, denied of the fellowship of others, with only machines, silicon chips and computer bots for company.
Too fanciful, gloomy and simplistic? Maybe but the world in which we live does seem increasingly to undervalue the benefits of friendship, comradeship and human interaction. It bothers me greatly.
It was a pleasure, therefore, to be reminded recently that there is another approach to business relationships. Recently I gave an illustrated presentation for the annual Spring Luncheon of The 39 Club, a social association for agents in the menswear trade that, remarkably, has been thriving since 1956.
More than 100 people attended the 70th anniversary event, including club members past and present, honorary members, menswear retailers active and retired, and other friends from the trade.
It was a very convivial and predictably well-refreshed gathering that is increasingly uncommon in an industry that once renowned for its readiness to party.
The 39 Club was formed on 10 July 1956 by Bert Brigdon, Freddie Kerby and Jock Munro, who in the jargon of the time were sales representatives or travellers (aka travelling salesmen). The essential criterion for membership was that the reps had to sell their wares within the West End and the City of London (although they could also cover other areas). I do not know why it took 11 years after World War II to form the club, but initially, for reasons never explained to me, membership was limited to chaps who had been in the wholesale trade in 1939, 17 years earlier. Membership was capped at 39, giving two reasons for the name. Retailers have never been allowed to become members, only what today we would call agents and salespeople employed by companies.
From the start the club courted the menswear editors of the day and so in 1982, when I was deputy editor of Men’s Wear magazine, I was invited to become an honorary member. It has been a very happy association for me for the past 44 years.
At the 70th lunch there were just three members – Mel Rogers, Richard Craddock and Tony Scott – surviving from those I got to know in 1982. At the club’s regular monthly meetings in a West End pub, the annual Spring Luncheon and the somewhat raucous Christmas Supper departed friends are fondly remembered.
I recall being surprised in my early encounters that commercial rivals could get on so well socially. It was all far more matey and less bitchy than my earlier experience with womenswear people. There was an amusing competitive edge to the club members’ relationship with their customers, the retail buyers, who ranged from significant department stores and multiples chains to important independents – all, incredibly enough, located in central London and the City.
Buyers’ roles and the resulting commercial connections back then lasted not years but decades. It is hard to imagine now The 39 Club being able to organise a football game and a cricket match against a Harrods XI or enjoying a day’s competitive golf against a team put up by Austin Reed.
While retail buyers are barred from membership, once retired they are regularly invited as guests to the Spring Luncheon, a generous gesture that is appreciated by both sides in my experience.
It took The 39 Club until 2014 to admit a female member, the first being Kamal Patel of Gabicci. It would be wrong to suggest there has been a huge influx of women, but Kamal is so involved that she is now club president. New members are actively recruited – I am not sure how near to 39 today’s membership is.
Such a chummy association may not suit everyone but personally I am pleased the efforts of a few characters gave the club a shake up about 15 years. I know the club’s current roster is very proud that while other trade bodies have disappeared since 1956, it flourishes still.
Of course, there is an interesting conversation to be had about how long the role of the classic sales agent might survive but for now I hope The 39 Club continues to bring like-minded folk together. And thanks for 44 years of good times (and some handy leads for new stories).
On a less happy note, I was sorry to hear that Alexander Manufacturing, the bold attempt to revive a Scottish take on making in the UK, is no more. On these pages back in October 2022, I was the first to write at length about the plans of Nadia Alexander and her husband Murray to revive a vulcanised raincoat factory and then add other manufacturing services for third-party customers.
In March the venture was brought to a halt. Sadly, the Alexanders are not the first to learn that passion, hard work, good intentions, and in this instance, a lot of money, is not enough to succeed in UK manufacturing.
