Slater Menswear is a Scottish retail menswear chain store founded in 1973 in its present location on Howard Street in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. The original Glasgow premises holds the Guinness World Record as the world's largest single menswear store. As of 2011 Slater's had 23 stores across the UK, with by far the largest being the original store in Glasgow. The company has expanded considerably since the mid-90s, but each store has an alterations and fitting team to ensure that almost all sizes can be accommodated.

History

The founder of the company was a tailor named Mr Samuel Slater. According to the company website http://www.slaters.co.uk/history/ he emigrated from Russia in 1904 and settled in the Gorbals area in Glasgow, where he opened a tailor's shop. His business prospered, his sons joined him, and they created a substantial tailoring company making menswear. The business remains in the family.

In 1973 following a fire which destroyed their premises, Samuel's son Ralph (then aged 55), made the decision to start again from scratch. Later the company began to branch out into retailing, expanding to include formal hire and womenswear and opening new stores in numerous UK locations.