[00:00.00]Good morning, nice to meet you. Do sit down.
[00:03.00]Thank you.
[00:04.56]Now, you're Human Resources manager of Jenkins, aren't you?
[00:07.94]Give me some background on the company, so I get a general picture.
[00:12.64]Stephen Jenkins founded the company nearly 30 years ago, and named it after himself, and he ran it for along time.
[00:20.56]Last year one of our competitors proposed combining, with the idea that separately the two companies were too small to survive.
[00:29.56]They were probably right, but anyway Stephen turned down the offer.
[00:34.14]Then, because he was getting on, he handed over the day-to-day running to his daughter, Catherine, while retaining full control himself.
[00:42.19]And you make children's clothes, don't you? Aren't there problems in the sector?
[00:46.99]Well, we mostly sell to retail chains, which sell them under their own brand labels.
[00:52.34]And things aren't as easy as they were, what with cheap imports, and the more expensive children's boutiques making inroads at the top end of the market.
[01:01.29]But we position ourselves in the middle range, so we're not too badly affected.
[01:06.48]We're under increasing pressure to cut our profit margins, though, because of growing competition between High Street retailers.