It all started with a football

Over time it is not unusual for companies to evolve and adapt in order to grow and flourish. P&P editor Melanie Attlesey speaks to Saj Khawaja, managing director of Spall Sports, to find out more about the last seven decades of business.

It all started with a football. The foundations of Spall Sports can be traced back to the launch of the Gold Cup football also known as the Spall Ball.

Peter Spall was the pioneer of the first lace-less leather football. These footballs were manufactured in China under the Spall Sports brand. Spall Sports itself was founded in 1964 in Shenfield, Essex.

Captain of the 1966 World Cup winning team, Booby Moore endorsed the Spall Ball and at the time was quoted as saying: “The Spall Match-Play Soccer Ball is the only ball bearing my signature. The Spall Ball’s quality and performance is equal to others costing nearly twice as much.”

A move into sportswear manufacture quickly followed after the success of the football, with ranges endorsed by popular sportspeople such as professional footballers Geoff Hurst and Jimmy Greaves. During the 1980s around 50 professional football clubs were wearing kits manufactured by Spall.

One of the highlights for the business during its heyday of football kit manufacture was it became recognised as the official supplier for the England Ladies international squad from 1988 for the following five years. Spall also supplied the kit that Wimbledon FC wore when the team won the 1988 FA Cup at Wembley Stadium.

Diversifying

After a turbulent couple of decades where UK manufacture was on the decline, Spall had to diversify and move away from sportswear manufacture. With many decades of experience, Saj Khawaja purchased the business in 2002 and moved manufacturing from Essex to Bradford.

He explains the decision to diversify: “After the market got saturated by other bigger brands with imported cut & sew kits, it was no longer economically profitable to manufacture kits in the UK. I made the decision to move towards bespoke football kits and introduce other sports categories to capture a bigger market share and to be busy all year round. Manufacturing football kits was very seasonal.”

Today Spall now offers concept, design, manufacturing and service for over 10 different sports categories, including rugby and netball. All of these products are designed and manufactured in-house by a team of 75 experts.

A personal highlight for Saj during the last two decades was overseeing the building of a purpose-built factory, Pakistan, which was completed in 2020 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. This factory has proved its weight in gold for Spall Sports and its customers and has become somewhat of a turning point for the business. “During this current economic situation, we are encouraging our customers to use our factory in Pakistan, which offers at least 30% discount on the prices in our UK factory,” explains Saj. Since the opening of the factory, Spall has seen its turnover increase year on year.

Whether a customer chooses to support UK manufacture or save costs by using the Pakistan factory, Spall offers a three to four week lead time on products, which is incredibly quick for the industry.

Not a company to stand on its laurels, Spall was quick to react in 2020 and once the need for face masks was established during the COVID-19 pandemic, the business started to manufacture sublimated face masks and snoods. “This turned out to be our most profitable year to date!” says Saj.

Again, after analysing the market and looking for ways to capitalise, Spall began to manufacture bespoke knitted sports socks in its Pakistan factory towards the end of 2021. This decision was taken following the closure of a UK sock manufacture and spotting a gap in the market to diversify and offer more to the customer.

Taking pride

Saj takes pride in what Spall offers to customers; whether that’s excellent service, affordable prices or quick lead times, it is clear these factors are very important to him and the wider business.

To continue to offer all of this and more to customers, Saj plans to further expand the factory in Pakistan, as well as expand the socks manufacturing element to capture more of the market share.

Spall Sports is a clear example of a business that is not afraid to make changes to succeed and with Saj at the helm for the last two decades he has done just that to make the business one of the market leaders in bespoke sportswear manufacture.