retail founded 1987 headquarters altrincham greater manchester key people fran cotton steve smith founders products rugby shirts leisurewear footwear website official website cotton traders is a british clothing company specialising in rugby apparel and leisurewear based in altrincham greater manchester england . it was founded in 1987 by former england national rugby union team captains fran cotton and steve smith . contents 1 history 2 logo legal action 3 sponsorships 4 references history edit cotton traders was founded by former england rugby players fran cotton and steve smith in 1987 . 1 the company is one of uk s multi channel retailers employing over a 1000 staff with an annual gross turnover of more than 91million . the company started out in a small room next to altrincham railway station supplying rugby shirts via mail order using advertisements in the sunday newspapers . after two years the business had an annual turnover of 2million . new ranges covering leisurewear and casual clothes for men and women footwear and accessories were added . clothing retailer next purchased a share of the business in 1997 . 2 cotton traders operates 125 retail stores nationwide in high street retail outlets garden centres airports and motorway services locations . they also provide an overseas delivery service . the company operates from four main buildings in altrincham and a distribution centre in pontefract . cotton traders house is responsible for the management of the company . the nearby operations site deals with customer service and the placing of customer orders through the telephone . in 2006 a vacant office building opposite cotton traders house was purchased and in 2012 a fourth building was added . head office departments are split between cotton traders house cotton mill formerly neptune house and the cotton hub . in 2014 cotton and smith purchased back the 33 % share of cotton traders held by next regaining full ownership of the company . 2 logo legal action edit cotton traders were the official suppliers of rugby kit to the rugby football union rfu between 1991 and 1997 including supplying the rugby shirts worn by the england national rugby union team . as an official supplier cotton traders also produced replica shirts for sale to the public . following the loss of the contract to nike in 1997 cotton traders continued producing a rugby shirt for sale in the style of the english national team namely a white shirt with a red rose emblem on the chest . this culminated in a legal case being brought against cotton traders by the rfu and nike in 2002 seeking to ban the sale of what they deemed unauthorised merchandise . 3 a high court judge ruled in favour of cotton traders in the case citing that the classic style rose used on the cotton traders shirt was associated with england as a country or team and not the rfu specifically and as such it could not be registered as a trade mark . 4 sponsorships edit cotton traders sponsors the following clubs barbarians durham county cricket club references edit kollewe julia 2007 08 27 . it s always david and goliath ... but david wins in the end . the guardian . archived from the original on 2015 05 27 . a b begum shelina 2014 10 21 . cotton traders buys back next s stake in the business . manchester evening news . archived from the original on 2015 05 27 . rozenberg joshua 2002 01 15 . war of the roses over england rugby shirt . the telegraph . archived from the original on 2015 05 27 . thorny issue over rugby s rose . bbc news online . 2002 03 26 . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title cotton traders & oldid 731744147 categories clothing brands of the united kingdomclothing companies of the united kingdomcompanies based in traffordhidden categories use dmy dates from march 2016use british english from march 2016 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 27 july 2016 at 07 27 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view