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Abstract
Using the number of trademarks registered as an indicator, this article explores the functioning of the economies of product differentiation that characterise industrial districts. In order to assess the role of districts in the creation of trademarks, the analysis focuses on knitwear production, a highly competitive industry and a pioneer in brand creation in Spain, and examines the development of the country's two main knitwear districts during the twentieth century. The article presents empirical evidence from trademark and business records to show that more trademarks were created in these two districts than in other areas. The imitation and rivalry characteristic of industrial districts favoured the proliferation of trademarks and encouraged firms to diversify their products through the creation of new brands. It also suggests that the success of the brands was uneven and depended on the industrial structure in each district and the kind of product specialisation. In conclusion, not only were the industrial districts an important factor in brand creation, but brand consolidation was decisive in raising levels of competitiveness in knitwear districts in Spain.
Acknowledgements
This research has benefited from the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through project HAR 2009-07571. A preliminary paper was presented in 2009 EBHA-BHC Fashions: Business practices in historical perspective in session 2.D From manufacturing to fashion: Textile and shoemaking clusters in Spain. I am grateful to the participants of this meeting for their useful suggestions, particularly Jordi Catalan and the discussant of this session John Wilson. I wish also to thank the anonymous referees for their helpful comments. I would also like to express my gratitude for the comments and materials provided by the interviewees (April 2009 and October 2010), especially Josep M. Ferrer, Lluis Agustí, Jaume Julià and Tomàs Juvé (Vilaseca Foundation, Mataró), Raül Cristòfol (Secretary General of Knitting Employer's Association of Mataro and Maresme area, ASEGEMA) Ramon Enrich (Spanish Association of Knitting Employer's), David Garcia (Manager of Knitting Employer's Association of Igualada and Anoia area, FAGEPI), Jesús Ramiro (Manufacturas Valls 1 SA enterprise, Chief of Human Resources) and Pere Sugrañes (Sugrañes Technical-Legal Office of Patents and Trademarks, Barcelona).
Notes
1. The 1996 census of knitwear trademarks lists companies by specialities and their brand names registered by the Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade. Research identified 966 entries with 418 trademarks, 358 of them registered prior to 1996. So this study covers 37.1% of the total trademarks listed, which suggests that the vast majority of trademarks were operating without being registered (perhaps to test their products' viability) based on the low opportunity cost of not registering them. The registration of trademarks is proof of their value on the market.
2. The knitwear sector is a textile sub-sector defined first and foremost by its technical characteristics. Unlike woven cloth (made of yarn woven on a warp and weft), knitted fabric is made by forming meshes using a single yarn or several interwoven yarns. Knitted fabrics are usually made on a very specific kind of machine which is quite unrelated to the more usual type of warp and weft weaving.
3. Of course, these figures do not refer solely to overseas sales of these goods, but take into account the rising process of company internationalisation (intra-industry trade, industrial offshoring to other countries, cooperation agreements with foreign companies and the opening of subsidiaries abroad), and especially to the success of Spanish textile distribution in the international market since the mid-1990s.
4. The workshops that made the machinery for the knitwear industry were located near the textile producers: Mataró (57 workshops) and the city of Barcelona (with 29 workshops) had the highest number of establishments where machinery was built, especially during the period of peak expansion between 1960 and 1974. Nevertheless, the leading producer of machinery was Jumberca SA, in the city of Badalona.
5. FAGEPI (Agrupació Comarcal de Fabricants de Gènere de Punt d'Igualada), Historical Archives, ‘Circular’, 100 (10 April 1964).
6. In the mid-1980s a service was created to foster the export of knitted goods, open to any companies interested. This was one of the organisations that promoted the Higher School of Design founded in Sabadell in 1989.
7. Some prominent companies, such as Manufacturas Valls SA, overcame these difficulties by organising training and setting up sections to repair the machines, dyes and finishes inside the company itself. The entire productive cycle was vertically integrated, from spinning to finishing, with a printing press on site.
8. The largest Catalan knitwear companies had factories in both districts. In 1975 Industrias Valls de Igualada (which specialised in sportswear, t-shirts and socks) employed 794 workers distributed in their factories in three towns: the headquarters in Igualada, and two towns in the Maresme, Arenys de Mar and Mataró. Likewise, Sans SA, manufacturing underwear, employed 1500 workers in five different towns, at its headquarters in Mataró and in Igualada, Ripoll, Cassà and Martorell.
9. One of the most emblematic brands of women's knitted outerwear, Escorpion (Vda. de J. Biosca Riera SA, Igualada), chose large-scale advertising campaigns in mainstream newspapers like La Vanguardia; in fact, it was the first advertiser to appear on the newspaper's back cover. Escorpion also had an advertisement in the first issue of the gossip magazine !Hola! and continued to advertise there for four more decades.
10. The British brand Burberry had been registered in Spain in 1922 and since the mid-1950s the requests for licences for foreign brands had begun to rise (the US brand Warner's was the foundation of the development of Vivesa SA from Igualada, one of Spain's leading lingerie companies).
11. Unno, marca de ropa interior nacida en España (November 2003).
12. The following exporting companies deserve mention: Antonio Aleñá (Anabelle), SA Textil Massana (Massana), Rodri SA (which later created Punt Roma), Isidro Jover y Cía Sa (Pulligan), Star Textil SA (Bóboli), SA Sans (Abanderado), Géneros de Punto Torras Sa (Torras), Géneros de Punto Ferrys (Ferrys), Industrias Valls SA (Punto Blanco) and Carlyps SA (Carlyps). Of these ten companies, seven were located in the Maresme and one in the Anoia district. Two more companies that were prominent in those years were Industrial Aragonés Sa (Antorcha) from Pineda de Mar and Vda. De J. Biosca Riera SA (Escorpion) from Igualada.