Ninety years ago, Frank Hunter founded a bespoke tailoring business in Belfast. In 1962, his son Graham stepped in as the second generation, and the decisions he made and the belief he sustained helped lay the foundation for everything that followed.

Graham recently shared his story with Shirt Tales NI, speaking openly about the reality of keeping manufacturing alive across the decades. His account of the courage required to sustain a family business, through the uncertainty of daily life in Northern Ireland during the “troubles” , the industry shifts, and the moments when it would have been far easier to stop, is both humbling and extraordinary. There is real pride behind every word.

When Frank Hunter established the business, professional clothing meant bespoke tailoring and precision craft. When Graham took on the company, he carried that same commitment forward, growing its manufacturing capability and embedding it firmly in the fabric of Derry~Londonderry’s industrial heritage. Graham went on to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Professional Clothing Industry Association Worldwide, recognition that reflects not just a career, but a generation of leadership that made the next generation possible.

What Graham built and handed on was not simply a business. It was a platform. The platform that would allow Hunter Apparel Solutions Limited (Hunter) to evolve, to invest, and to become something neither Frank nor Graham could have fully envisioned when the story began.

Under the leadership of Simon Hunter Esq. M.B.E., Graham’s son and Hunter’s current CEO, that evolution has been extraordinary. The third generation transformed Hunter from a garment manufacturer into a technology-led specialist in professional clothing and personal protective equipment (PPE) serving emergency services across the UK and Ireland.

In 2000, Hunter launched HunterPAC®, a proprietary software platform for managing uniform and PPE ecosystems at scale. In 2014, HunterCARE® introduced structured, professional garment care and maintenance as a managed service. By 2019, Hunter were early adopters bringing AI-driven sizing technology to large, distributed workforces. In 2023, Hunter became the UK’s first operator of LCO₂+ decontamination technology through Deconology®, a system designed to help improve the long-term health outcomes of firefighters by removing harmful contaminants from PPE.  We then introduced Flexguard® the world’s first fully hinged blunt-trauma exoskeleton designed for public order officers, which has taken the top prizes at both the BSIF Safety Awards and the NAUMD Awards in North America, the highest global honour in the professional clothing industry.

Simon himself has been recognised as UK Overall Director of the Year by the Institute of Directors and UK Innovator of the Year at the Viscount Awards, and was awarded an M.B.E. by H.R.H. Queen Elizabeth II for services to business and the economy.

In 2023, the fourth generation arrived. Jude Hunter joined as Business Development Manager, carrying the Hunter name and the family’s commitment to the people on whom society depends into the next chapter of this story.

Four generations. Ninety years. One company, still headquartered in Derry~Londonderry, still manufacturing, still innovating, and still protecting the frontline personnel who need it most and we all rely on as a society.

As we mark this milestone, we want to acknowledge what Graham Hunter gave to this business and, through this business, to the city. The story of Hunter is a story of manufacturing kept alive, of a family that chose to keep building when others might have walked away, and of a legacy that is now being carried forward with the same pride and determination that Graham brought to it more than sixty years ago.

Our story is still being written, make sure you follow along to learn more.

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Contact our sales team to learn more about our services: sales@hunterapparelsolutions.com