Chris Holland meets entrepreneur Stefan Simmonds who recalled his days as boss of Drummond Mill which burned down last month

"When the new mills were completed, it was admitted on all sides that no finer manufacturing premises had been hitherto built in Bradford ....and the high ideal with which the place was started has been carefully held in view and worked up to in every later addition and improvement."

So stated a souvenir brochure produced by James Drummond & Sons Limited, of Lumb Lane Mills, Bradford, for the British Empire Exhibition of 1924.

It said: "Here it (the wool trade) has flourished to such an extent that the name of Bradford has become inseparably identified with it, and there is today no civilised land in which the name is not known in connection with worsted fabrics of the first order of merit."

Now, of course, those imposing Lumb Lane premises are only a memory following the recent devastating fire.

One man who knew the place more than most is Cleckheaton-based businessman Stefan Simmonds, who spent 20 years owning and running it and described it's demise as tragic.

For most of that time Stefan had a controlling interest in the Drummond business after being invited to become involved by Richard Stroud, a member of one of Bradford's leading wool dynasties whose grandfather built up the Stroud Riley Drummond business.

He initially viewed it as an opportunity to use Lumb Lane Mills as extra storage space and a distribution centre for his string of discount shops.

"I didn't know one end of a loom from another or what finishing or grey cloth was. All I could see was a fine property .

"Drummond Mill was closed off except for the weaving shed operating part time. l

thought I could use the premises for the retail businesses and rent off the surplus.

It worked like a charm and made money straight away.

"What I didn't realise was that I would fall in love with textiles,"said Stefan.

He expanded the business mainly through acquisitions - about one a year for eight years - and Drummond became the largest worsted manufacturer in the UK with 120 high speed looms operating round the clock, except for two days at Christmas, for several years.

At its peak the group had a £50 million turnover operating around ten businesses, including knitting company Stroud Riley, which was a principal supplier to Mothercare; John Crowther in Huddersfield along with a flag making business and a major interlining manufacturer in South Africa.

Stefan said: " Drummonds was near bankrupt when I became involved but it then made profits of between £1 million and £2 million every year during my time. We employed more than 1,000 people, including 400 or so at Lumb Lane which was our main manufacturing centre where we invested in the latest technology. Overall, the business produced one million metres of fabric a week."

The self-made retail and property entrepreneur, now 70, who has no intention of retiring, paid nearly £250,000 for his 30 per cent stake in Drummond in 1979. Before he sold his interest a decade ago Stefan disposed of a significant chunk to French manufacturing group Chargeurs, which subsequently took it over before passing on nthe mill to its current Huddersfield-based owners. .

He bowed out of Drummond as recession and the changing face of textiles began to take their toll . Otherwise, the option was to move production from Bradford to Eastern Europe.

"Drummond was mainly supplying the British market and even though we had invested massively in modern technology, the cost base moved away from us to Eastern Europe . The only way forward that I and anyone could see was to move our main production overseas and I didn't want to do that. Chargeurs agreed to take Drummonds over. They had the financial wherewithal to take it forward.

"Drummonds didn't fail and was nowhere near receivership. I had tuned it into a very profitable operation but textiles was changing dramatically and I was happy to move on by that time," Stefan told me.

The former Marks & Spencer trainee is particularly proud that Drummond became the biggest manufacturer of cloth for all M&S woven wool outerwear, including coats, men's and women's suits, skirts and trousers which accounted for 30-40 per cent of turnover.

" It was a very profitable operation. We made money from M&S even though many said you couldn't. They were wonderful customers.

"The reason we did well was that we were very clever and innovated many of M&S's big developments- including enabling customers to buy matching jackets and trousers separately. Everyone does it now but then it was pioneering and regarded as impractical.

" We also introduced the first stretch worsted fabric and eventually sold thousands and thousands of pieces. It was a fantastic breakthrough and down to some of the very clever people at Drummonds.

"Within the business another innovation was giving shares to our multi-national workforce. That is something I am very proud of," Stefan recalled.

His interest in textiles stretched beyond Drummond.

Stefan bought Salts Mill from the Illingworth Morris group owner Alan Lewis and Drummonds owned the Salts of Saltaire brand.He introduced the late Jonathan Silver to the Victoria Road building, which he later transformed, after buying a mohair business from his father Sidney Silver.

Stefan regrets that the potential of the Drummond's Lumb Lane site was not realised after he left.

He said: "It's a brilliant site with its own bore hole, a two acre car park; is near the ring road and convenient for the motorways. It's a shame that more was not done with it. I think it was a terrible waste of a great building."

Stefan started his business empire with savings from Marks & Spencer and a small loan from an uncle.

He built up a chain of 23 discount stores trading as Multisaver, Simons Stores, Simco Supermarkets with shops across Yorkshire, Lancashire and North Wales which were the forerunners of today's pound stores,

Today, he focuses mainly on his Titan business centres operation, based at Central Arcade, Cleckheaton. He has three sites providing high specification offices for around 200 mainly IT, digital and legal clients and is on the lookout for more suitable local premises to convert.

" We have become the biggest in the area in less than seven years and I want to build it up further. We will stay local which makes it easier to manage. I can visit all my sites within an hour and meet clients who all have my mobile to contact me whenever they need to," said Stefan.

Looking back on his days at Drummond, he recalled: " I had 20 wonderful years at Drummond when it was a mainstream, high volume, quality worsted manufacturer. I

got that site throbbing, and at its height we supported upwards of 2,000 local jobs, around three times the workforce.

"At its peak we had half of Bradford's commission weavers working for us, along with spinners and machine engineers .It was very important to the Bradford economy."