Dormeuil, the French family-owned maker and merchant of suiting fabrics, has acquired Alfred Brown (Worsted Mills) Ltd, a family-owned weaver founded in Yorkshire in 1915. The deal was made public on 14 October 2025, when the advisers to the sellers announced it, and Victor Dormeuil wrote in a LinkedIn announcement that the company had acquired 100% of Alfred Brown. No price was disclosed.
The sale was handled by the corporate finance firm Frazer Hall, which was hired to find a buyer and acted as lead adviser, and by the law firm Gordons, whose head of corporate, James Fawcett, led the legal work for the Brown family shareholders. Frazer Hall said the buyer was Dormeuil S.A.S. and described the Dormeuil Group as a French family textile business dating back to 1842.
Two Yorkshire weavers under one roof
Although Dormeuil is based in France, it has long-standing roots in Yorkshire. TheBusinessDesk.com reported that the company opened a Yorkshire branch in 1871 and that, about a century later, Dormeuil Manufacturing was incorporated in Dewsbury. The acquisition therefore combines two Yorkshire fabric makers.
Alfred Brown weaves worsted suiting fabrics at its own mill in the UK. Its accounts for the year to 30 November 2024, filed at Companies House, showed turnover of $10.5 million, a pre-tax profit of $362,000, net assets of $8.8 million and net cash of $2.4 million, with no borrowings, according to TheBusinessDesk.com.
“Our ambition is clear: Preserve and celebrate Alfred Brown's heritage and values”
Victor Dormeuil, head of strategy and development at Dormeuil, as quoted by TheBusinessDesk.com
Victor Dormeuil, who leads strategy and development, called the deal a natural step. He said Dormeuil plans to keep Alfred Brown's heritage intact, expand its international reach and continue its Made-in-UK manufacturing.
Context: the Yorkshire wool trade
The West Yorkshire towns around Huddersfield, Bradford, Leeds and Dewsbury remain the center of English worsted weaving, although far fewer mills operate than in the past. In the same week, TheBusinessDesk.com reported that SIL Group, a Bradford-based collective of about 20 textile businesses supplying luxury and designer brands, had secured a multimillion-dollar lending facility from Shawbrook Bank in September 2025 to fund expansion, with trade in the Middle East and Europe, especially Italy. SIL Group chief executive Andrew Seal called it a vote of confidence in British textiles.
What it means for tailoring
For tailors and their customers, ownership of the mills behind a fabric book matters because it shapes what gets woven and where. Dormeuil's stated plan is to keep Alfred Brown's production in Britain, which preserves one more source of English-woven worsted at a time when the number of such mills is small. Customers choosing a fabric can ask their tailor which mill wove the lengths in a given bunch; our guide to worsted versus woolen wool explains what the worsted label means.
