Yarmouth Oilskins

The firm's recorded history begins on 1 February 1898, when Johnson and Sons became a limited company in Great Yarmouth. Three days later, four of its partners joined other local businessmen to found Yarmouth Stores Ltd, set up to trade as outfitters, clothiers, hosiers and sellers of waterproof clothing, oils and drapery. The company relabeled its waterproof lines under the Yarmouth Stores name and built an export trade in oilskins, knitwear and workwear that reached markets abroad.

Before the Second World War the firm employed more than 1,200 people, most of them machinists in Great Yarmouth factories sewing overalls, uniforms, smocks and other workwear. During the herring-fishing industry's peak, the company was a major supplier to Scottish fishing crews and the women who processed the catch, providing oilskin skirts, aprons and boots suited to gutting and packing work on the quaysides. When the herring industry declined between the 1930s and 1950s, the firm lost a core part of its market and some retail branches closed.

The 1960s brought a new customer base after gas was discovered off the Norfolk coast: the company began supplying vessels and crews working the gas fields with chandlery, equipment and protective clothing, a service line that continues today. The business remains family-owned, still making its smocks and oilskins in Great Yarmouth with a factory of around 20 machinists working in natural fibres to original historic patterns.