Rohan is a British designer and supplier of outdoor and lightweight travel clothing and footwear that has 50 stores and an annual turnover of £30 million. Their products are designed in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire and manufactured internationally.[1]
History
The company was founded in 1972 by research chemist Paul Howcroft and his wife Sarah who had met in Scotland. They were both in their early twenties at the time, their start up capital was £70 and they operated from a small house in Skipton, Yorkshire, having chosen that location because of its proximity to West Yorkshire textile mills. Their first product was a pair of quick-drying mountaineering salopettes.
In 1978, one of their jacket designs was worn by the Austrian climber Peter Habeler on the first climb to the summit of Mount Everest without bottled oxygen. Soon afterwards the lightweight travel range was launched including Rohan Bags that are still in production today. The Howcrofts lost control of the company in the wake of Black Wednesday after a period of decline in the 1980s,[2] and from 1988 it was owned by Clarks until a management buyout.