THE historic church furnisher J. Wippell & Co has returned to the ecclesiastical market, because of its former neighbour and one-time rival, Watts & Co.
Wippells went into voluntary liquidation last yr after significant financial losses sustained through the pandemic, and closed last yr after greater than two centuries in business (News, 26 May 2023). It has been bought by the guy ecclesiastical outfitter and furnisher, Watts. For a long time, the shops traded from adjoining shops in Tufton Street, Westminster.
“We are tremendously excited to be bringing Wippells back to the market,” the chief executive of Watts, Robert Hoare, told the Church Times this week. “It can also be going from one family to a different, and we feel that’s essential.” Mr Hoare is the most recent generation of his family to own and manage the business, and is descended from the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott, who was certainly one of its founders.
The deal, for an undisclosed sum, and in money, was announced by members of the Watts team attending the 81st General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday. Wippells had a big business operation with US-based customers, with a turnover of more half one million a kilos a yr, and the news was greeted with cheers from conference delegates.
The acquisition by Watts brings it the Wippells brands, all its mental property (including an archive of “20,000 paper patterns, currently being digitalised”), and all liquidated stock reminiscent of cloths, fabrics, and trims. The comprehensive academic hire inventory of gowns, hoods, and hats has already been sold on.
The relaunched business will probably be online only, with its own dedicated website, Mr Hoare said, with a give attention to keen pricing and “quick-ship” items that could be dispatched easily. The range will include clerical shirts, cassocks, surplices, stocks, choir robes, and communion silver, along with a planned collection of “ready-to-wear stock vestments”. Some items will “almost definitely” be available to view within the Watts showroom.
Mr Hoare was especially excited in regards to the heritage elements. “Our acquisition includes the entire old Wippells images and portraits, amongst them an engraving of the primary shop frontage, and an exquisite picture of the founding Mr Wippell in his frock coat and top hat.” These elements, he said, can be incorporated into the brand new branding.
Watts & Co has expanded lately from 17 to 35 staff, with a median age of under 30. The team specialises in mainly high-end, bespoke commissions and restorations. Mr Hoare’s grandmother, Elizabeth Hoare, established the firm’s US links within the Seventies with commissions for St Thomas’s, Fifth Avenue. The Wippells union comes with access to a longtime and dependable transatlantic clientele, and creates one business with 385 years of combined experience in church furnishing.
