GUL – A West Country Success Story
Gul has been a successful Cornish watersports company ever since I began writing this column some 10 years ago.
It is astonishing to consider that Dennis Cross founded the Company back in 1967 some 40 years ago as a result of him wishing to carry on surfing at Fistral during the winter months.
Using rubber more suitable for the manufacture of gaskets Dennis and his wife Rose started making 2 piece wet suits and demand grew and Gul came to life.
There have been ups and downs over the last 40 years and sadly wet suits are no longer made in Cornwall but the Company remains staunchly proud of its Cornish roots and continues to be a major player in the water garments industry.
It has continued to have a large slice of the surfing wet suit market but has expanded into sailing waterproofs etc and of course into lifestyle/leisure wear following a trend set by many Australian/American wet suit companies.
Gul has four shops in the South West at Falmouth, Newquay, St Ives and Truro with one outlet at Portsmouth somewhat an outcast as the only store outside the Duchy.
Today marks a major expansion as the Company opens its first outlet in Devon with a new shop at Drakes Circus in Plymouth. The store opens at 10.00 am and there will be a reception in the evening starting at 6.00 pm with live music and drinks.
Gul is one of the major sponsors of the British Olympic Sailing Squad and the Team is fully kitted out by the Company.
Exmouth’s Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes the Team GBR nominated 49’er skiff sailors for Beijing and the current 49’er World Champions will attend the evening reception.
I understand that after Plymouth the next target is a shop in London and it is quiet something for any Cornish enterprise to start in the back of a VW Camper and end up in Oxford Street.
I wish Mike Pickering and his team at Gul every success.
Sadly I can’t make the Plymouth opening as I will be at the Falmouth Oyster Festival, which promises to be a great weekend and starts at 11.30 am on Thursday and concludes on Sunday at 4.00 pm.
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