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1976
Bob and Liz Davidson open a sports shop in Market Street, Eastleigh named Activity.
Expanded by opening a second sports shop in Eastleigh. One shop would sell sports footwear and second sold clothing
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1983
Bob attended the Wyvern School new parents evening selling sportswear.
There were two ladies at this event selling logoed school uniform, they were selling a lot more school uniform than Bob was selling sportswear.
Bob approached the ladies selling uniform and asked them to go into business with him. And that’s where it all started!
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1984
The new school uniform business was given the name Skoolkit.
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1987
The first Skoolkit shop opens in Eastleigh, the upstairs also gave room for Bob and Liz to have a room as an office.
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1989
Opened a shop in Basingstoke with Anne Cheng as Manager,
Anne goes on to become the General Manager of all shops.
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1989
Skoolkit also open a shop in Fareham.
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Late 80's
Ahead of its time Skoolkit introduced a computerised system.
The new till system recorded the sales of the day. Bob would drive around the branches to pick up
the cassette tapes which would give recordings of the days sales.
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1989
Purchased the Waterloo Embroidery Company and their customer list.
Embroidery production in now being run from upstairs in the Activity Sportwear shop.
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Early 90's
Sold both the Activity sportswear shops to concentrate on the Skoolkit uniform shops.
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1990
Take the lease on a unit in Shakespeare Business Park in Eastleigh.
We now have the space to purchase a 12 head Tajima machine and production increases. Production increases so much we soon have to expand into a second unit.
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1993
Due to the amount of new schools being supplied through our Eastleigh shop we recognise we need more space.
So, we purchase a larger unit and move our Eastleigh shop which also gives us room to operate offices from above the shop.
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1995
The Davidsons eldest son Sean joins the company. After taking on various roles within the office,
Sean’s IT knowledge has proved invaluable to the company and his position as IT director has strengthened our technological standing.
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1997
Even though Kieron Davidson, the youngest son of the Davidsons had been helping his parents within the company
from 1992 whilst still at school, in 1997 he permanently joins the company. Kieron learns all aspects of the business, from our shops, warehouse and embroidery.
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2001
On the move again we move into two larger units in Shakespeare Business Park. We now have the room to expand the embroidery and print department as well as accommodate for a small office space.
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2003
Needing to be able to see our stock levels in ‘real time’ we invest in a new software system from Fashion Master. This is installed throughout the company.
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2005
Kieron becomes the Managing Director of Skoolkit allowing Bob to take on the role as Chairman.
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2006
Outgrowing our Shakespeare Business Park units we make our biggest move yet by purchasing our own 10,000 sq ft warehouse in Phoenix Park, Eastleigh.
This gave us the scope to expand the business in all areas, we could now look to open new shops in new areas as we now had the storage space to accommodate bulk amounts of clothing, a larger area for embroidery production and a dedicated Head Office space.
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2007
We launch our first buy on line website and this has continued to be one of our fastest areas of growth.
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2010
Open a shop in Totton.
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2011
Open a shop in Havant.
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2020
Open a shop in Newbury, with the acquisition of the successful Trutex and More shop in The Kennet Centre, this is our first shop outside of Hampshire. Skoolkit have now made in-roads into Berkshire.
And we still grow and develop! – During 2020 we are extending onto our warehouse which will reconfigure our goods-in area, giving us a more streamlined department. We have also taken on an extra warehouse unit within Phoenix Park to help with our increased stock levels.
We will also be launching version 3 of our buy online website. Our website is incredibly successful and goes from strength to strength as each year goes by.
We are confident our new and improved website will give parents and schools a much more user-friendly shopping and information experience.
Skoolkit has come a long way since the days of Bob Davidson embroidering school uniform from above his sports shop with a few members of staff.
The family run company now employs over 140 permanent members of staff, who work across our 6 shops, online website department, warehouse, embroidery/print department and head office.
So, I think you will agree Skoolkit has stood the test of time in the ever evolving and challenging world of school uniforms!
We are proud of the partnerships we have established with our schools and parents, that is evident by the longevity of the relationships we have with the 500 plus schools who trust us with their school uniform needs.