John McFarlane & Co.

JOHN McFARLANE & CO., Sailmakers, 147, Shields Road, Glasgow.

    A valuable and long-standing repute attaches to the business of Messrs. John McFarlane & Co., who are the oldest representatives of the sailmaking trade in Glasgow, and occupy a pioneer position among those influential concerns that have contributed to advance and promote its prosperity and interests. An interesting contrast is presented in the position of the house at the present time and its comparatively modest inauguration exactly half a century ago.

    The firm’s fine new building in Shields Road is acknowledged one of the most completely organised concerns of the kind in the Western Metropolis, and its numerous facilities may be said to embody all the practical developments that have taken place in the sailmaking industry during the past fifty years. One of the most impressive features of this representative factory is its square and regular proportions, while it is effectively lighted from the series of windows all round as well as from the roof, and it bears the particular advantage of being on the ground level instead of being reached by several stairs, as is the case with most factories of the kind, and which has long constituted a serious drawback. The whole work is thus carried out on one flat, and from the office in front the operations of a staff of about forty men can be personally superintended. The busy industrial aspect of the house testifies to the vitality of the trade of which it is the centre, and a very large output is maintained, in order to provide effectually and satisfactorily for the constant demands made upon the resources of the house by its widespread connections in almost every important shipping centre at home and abroad.

    Of late years Messrs. McFarlane have been favoured with several valuable contracts, and some time ago they provided a set of sails for the Whaling Company, of Dunedin, and sent out sails to Rangoon for the Government pilot Gutter. Amongst other contracts they have had the high honour conferred on them by being appointed sailmakers for one of the first shipbuilding firms on the Clyde — Messrs. Wm. Denny & Bros., Levin Ship Yard, Dumbarton. They are also sailmakers for the well-known and old-established firm of Messrs. J. and A. Roxburgh, of Glasgow, now ably represented by Mr. John A. Roxburgh, having done the sailmaking work for this firm since the first ship owned by them, when it was then represented by the late well-known John Roxburgh and his colleague Captain Jas. McKellar. They are also sailmakers for several of the leading shipowners in Glasgow and elsewhere throughout the kingdom, all of whom have always had implicit confidence in John McFarlane & Co. They consign largely to China, Calcutta, Bombay, Columbia, New Zealand, and the Colonies, and also nearly all the Continental ports and all the seaports of the United Kingdom, and derive a large share of the prosperity of their business from the vitality and always increasing success of their export trade. Messrs. McFarlane’s sails have been always readily identified by the sound and sterling quality of the canvas employed in their manufacture, and in both sails and tents they embody such reputed fabrics as are known to emanate from the canvas manufacturing houses of Gourock and Arbroath. The best of Gourock bolt rope and galvanized clue rings are largely used, and, in order to preserve the high name that the house has earned, the firm adhere to those principles of production which have rendered their goods popular and appreciable among marine and general connections.

    Ever since the days of the late esteemed senior partner of the firm — Mr. John McFarlane, by whom the business was founded in 1840, and who was better known in the trade by the well-merited designation of “Honest John” — the house has borne a character for integrity and high commercial principle from which nothing can detract. All the old-established features of the house are ably preserved under the guidance of the son, Mr. Archie F. McFarlane, in whose lengthy experience in the trade his many constituents confidently and implicitly rely ; and among all interested in the sailmaking industry and commerce his advice on every matter relating thereto is unreservedly accepted as a conclusive and well-formed judgment in reference to the particular subject to which it relates.

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