Endura’s entire sewing facility at Livingstone, Scotland is being sold off, along with all the contents.
The auction site listing shows a whole array of equipment – quite the operation. There’s everything from work tables, rolls of fabric and sewing machines through to industrial racking, forklift trucks, and shipping containers.
The building itself is also up for sale. The property listing describes it as being 64,643 Sq Ft: ‘The standalone unit is of steel portal frame construction with profile metal insulated cladding and a pitched roof incorporating translucent panels. The unit was constructed in 2001 with the warehouse extended in 2014’.
Endura reported significant losses of nearly £14m in 2024, however as part of the much larger Pentland Group, which owns significant shares in brands like Speedo, JD Sports and Berghaus, reported profits of just under £340m. Potentially then, the business can take the hit, restructure, and return Endura to profitability. This seems to be what the closure of the sewing shop is about. A statement from Endura said:
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We are now in the process of relocating our Endura operations. The Endura brand team will be going to an office in central Edinburgh, while our operations teams will merge with existing Pentland Brands teams at relevant sites in the UK. We are seeking strategic options for the old Livingston site.
Endura is incredibly proud of its Scottish heritage and will be moving its home to the new site in central Edinburgh.
Endura
The message seems to be that they’re not going away, just moving down the road. If you’re not in the market for a shipping container or a fancy sewing machine, perhaps you’ll dip into their Outlet sale, where there are many items at 50% off?
There’s something slightly wooly about that wording. Would like to see a clear statement that production is staying in the UK. Being locally produced was the last reason to bother buying Endura kit
Being Endura I expect they’ll say it’s an Extra Large factory but when you buy it it’ll be more like a Medium.
So what happens to everyone who worked in the factory then? Voluntary or enforced redundancy for those who cannot relocate? Where will all the clothing be made now? Overseas? Does this mean Endura is effectively an offshore manufacturer with a greatly reduced Scotland based workforce? I cannot say I am in any way surprised having gone through their last set of published accounts. A big drop in sales and high stock levels combined with greatly reduced cash reserves does not speak to a business in the best of health.
Yup. “Brand team" I assume are some marketing staff, designers and managers.
What is happening to the actual manufacturing? Moved to another UK site owned by Pentland or completely offshored/outsourced.
A quick look at Pentlands Brands website only suggests offices.
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Their stuff has been made abroad for years haven’t they ? It’s only Custom Kit that was made in Scotland like my Trash Free Trails jerseyÂ
Livingston, no E.
Production had already been moving overseas and I think that was completed last year. They no longer do custom kit for clubs either – I think as a result of that move.Â
Their stuff mostly for lithe fit ladies has been up for sale in Oxfam for a few weeks now so maybe stock they can’t seem to shift but as usual Oxfam think folk will pay their inflated pricing like their vinylÂ
Last few things I had were definitely not made in in Britain. Â
Wonder what they actually did make there.
As above their club kit offering ended a bit back. 10 years ago I was trying to get our club kit from them (as back then their sizing was right for British).  However feedback of horror stories from other clubs of deliveries being mega late and missing the entire racing season took us in another direction. Bullet dodged maybe.Â
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You can just imagine they’ll be doing the usual marketing bullshit putting a faux stylised union jack quadrant or Saltire on all the labels, whilst making stuff in Indonesia, Vietnam and China. Bit like several deceitful ‘british’ bike suppliers already do (they aren’t bike manufacturers as they don’t actually make the bikes, they badge up stuff from mega workshops in Taiwan).
Hmmm.
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They’ve also moved their distribution centre from Scotland to somewhere in England, possibly Warrington if I remember correctly. I can’t see Endura being around at the end of the year the way they’re going.Â
I’m laughing at the XL factory being a medium factory comment. ?
And sadly, it does look like things have come apart at the seams for them in recent years.
BTW “streamline operations" is obviously corporate jargon for “cut costs and make people redundant", so I feel a bit bad for joking about it.
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A real shame to be honest. Always very hard to take things the other way once you’ve done this.Â
I’ve got quite a bit of Endura stuff. I’m a great believer in buying local. I can see no reason to buy their product anymore.
The move of the HQ to Edinburgh is a sop to remaining a ‘Scottish’ manufacturer, but I doubt anyone who cares about that will be fooled. Meanwhile there’s a whole load of jobs gone to the Far East.
They may as well move the entire operation to China.
Did Endura not tell us jocks that if we voted for independence then they were offski on the grounds Scotland might no longer be in the EU?
This sort of thing was inevitable.
A once excellent UK (Scottish) brand which has unfortunately slowly gone downhill in the past few years. Quality of manufacture and materials has been sadly lacking too. To the point that I recently found myself saying NO to a mate who was on the look out for a new MTB jacket. Sad stuff happens when you are bought by a bigger player. C’est la vie
Sad to see. I do have a lot of endura gear and its generally pretty solid. Certainly no worse than the Fox kit I have bought over the last few years.
Makes this announcement even more surprising.
https://media.wbdsports.com/post/pentland-brands-partners-with-sky-media-for-landmark-tnt-sports-
That announcement doesn’t surprise me, seems to be the M.O. of a certain type of profit driven leadership, drive down quality, ‘streamline’ processes and focus your money and effort on ‘brand growth’.
I’ve seen it elsewhere, closer to home. I’d be curious to know if there’s an economic/business strategy that identifies brand or presence to be more valuable than actual product these days 🙄
Keela do good jackets so may be an alternative – not MTB specific but certainly good for the outdoors.
Haven’t heard of Mitre or Ellesse since high school, 2 brands that I thought had gone.