Member spotlight: John Smedley announces its new Managing Director
02/04/2025
UKFT member John Smedley, the oldest knitwear maker in the world, promotes Jess McGuire Dudley, Deputy Managing Director and Global Brand Director, as its new Managing Director.
In a break with tradition, Jess is the first Managing Director from a creative background. Previously Deputy MD and Global Brand Director, Jess will assume her new title in April. She takes over from Ian Maclean MBE, a member of the Smedley family, who has worked within the John Smedley business for the past 25 years and will now step into the Executive Chairman’s role.
Jess’ appointment coincides with a renewed focus on strategically futureproofing John Smedley, both in manufacturing and in product design. Established in 1784 in Derbyshire, Jess has been pivotal in transforming the marketing and sales side of the business in recent years. She has refreshed the brand’s image and the many ways it is visible in markets around the world, resulting in double-digit increases to John Smedley’s global sales across e-commerce (80%) and its retail stores (6%), as well as growing its physical retail footprint with two standalone stores in London. In addition to new wholesale showrooms in London and Milan, the footprint of stores in Japan has grown to 11, with further new openings coming in 2025/2026.
“There is a real love between me and this business, and I am determined to ensure it thrives for decades to come,” says Jess McGuire Dudley. “The commercial landscape is a challenge for a UK based manufacturing brand; traditional wholesale and retail continue to be tough, and the future has a lot of uncertain challenges, from US tariffs to tax increases. But it is a challenge we are up for facing, and we have plenty of new ideas to maintain John Smedley as ‘The World’s Finest Knitwear’.”
John Smedley remains the oldest manufacturing factory in the world, still operating in its original home in Lea Mills in the Derwent Valley. Jess continues:
“In addition to our core collections, bringing British fibre to the forefront of what we do, supporting the wider industry of spinners to farmers, and injecting a touch of British innovation into everything we do… that’s how we modernise our industry to ensure we attract new talent. We can blow off the cobwebs of the sleepy perception of craftsmanship and show how captivating it can be.”
Congratulations Jess!
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