Pentland Brands drives huge sportswear companies to Sunderland

Pentland Brands has announced a major investment drive in Sunderland today (January 15).

The company, behind global brand names like Speedo, Ellesse and Berghaus, is recruiting for various roles including supply operations, finance and customer service.

Sunderland has been the home of outdoor brand Berghaus since Pentland acquired the brand in the early 1990s.

It is now bringing support teams from its Active brands portfolio - swimwear brand Speedo, rugby brand, Canterbury and football brand, Mitre - to its Sunderland HQ.

Sean Hastings, Pentland Brands’ global marketing director, shares his time between the Sunderland, Nottingham and London offices.

He said: “Berghaus has a fantastic track record of innovative design, a well-established supply chain and customer service operation and we’ll now be able to implement that across our other Active brands.

“A multi-brand support team here at our North-East HQ also makes sense as we know there’s a great pool of talent in the region.

“These developments will help us to better manage our portfolio of brands and opens up a broader range of career opportunities for our teams to work across multiple brands and projects.”

Pentland Brands products are available in over 190 countries and it employs more than 1,800 people. Established in Liverpool in 1932, Pentland is a family owned, British business.

The Sunderland office won a prestigious national award for Best Fit Out of Workplace at the 2016 British Council for Offices Awards.

Following the recruitment drive, Pentland Brands will employ 85 people in Sunderland, plus 72 field-based or flexible location roles.