DURING its industrial heyday, “Leicester clothes the world” was the proud boast of this East Midlands city. The once-giant textile and garment industry, however, is mostly gone, a victim of Asian competition. This knocked the stuffing out of the city. But now Leicester is in the midst of a comeback, led by a new generation of people like Charlie Evans.
Rather than clothing the world, she has the more modest ambition of putting a few stylish packs on people’s backs. While completing a graphic-design degree at the local De Montfort University (DMU) she came up with the idea of a cardboard backpack, made almost entirely of recyclable materials. She enrolled at a business boot-camp, called Crucible, at the university’s Innovation Centre, where she was given a stipend of £8,000 ($12,560) and the help of a business mentor. She has since started her own company and found a local manufacturer who will turn out the first 100 or so bags by September.
Ms Evans’s rapid ascent reflects Leicester’s wider story. In the UK Growth Dashboard, published on June 16th by the Enterprise Research Centre, a research outfit, the city surprised many by equalling London in producing the fastest-growing businesses in England. The county of Leicestershire trailed London, but outside the capital was equalled only by Oxfordshire.
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via Brian Rushton, The sweet spot
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