In 1971, Roger Saul and his mother, Joan, founded Mulberry. 55 years later, the luxury brand still makes about half its bags in Somerset

Mulberry started with leather off-cuts. In the early 1970s, Roger Saul’s father worked at a shoe manufacturer and brought home scraps of leather, which his son turned into belts and chokers to sell at Portobello Market in London. In 1971, with £500 from his mother, Joan, he turned that sideline into a company.

Fifty-five years later, Mulberry is a luxury brand sold around the world, and it still makes about half of its bags in two factories in Somerset, the county where it began.

A mother-and-son business

Mulberry’s own account of its origins describes a family operation. Roger spent his mother’s £500 on stationery and a batch of belt buckles imported from France. He handled design and marketing in London, while Joan ran production from the family garage in Somerset. His sister, Rosemary, designed the mulberry tree logo the brand still uses.

The brand grew by mixing those two places. In 1975, Saul presented a collection called Hunting, Shooting, Fishing, inspired by English country life, with blouson jackets, saddlery leather and netted bags.

According to Mulberry, it sold around the world and earned the company the Queen’s Award for Export in 1979. Mulberry introduced its first bag collection in 1981 and later opened shops in London and Paris.

From founder to fashion house

In the early 2000s, and a series of designers took the brand in new directions. Mulberry credits Nicholas Knightly with the Bayswater, which became a staple carried by Kate Moss and Jennifer Lopez. Under creative director Emma Hill, appointed in 2008, the brand launched the Alexa, inspired by the presenter Alexa Chung’s vintage briefcase. Later designers added the Iris and the Amberley.

The bags became famous. The production stayed partly at home.

The Somerset factories

According to Mulberry’s investor profile, its first Somerset factory, The Rookery, opened in 1989, and a second, The Willows, followed in 2013. The company describes itself as the UK’s “largest manufacturer of luxury leather goods”, and says the two factories make approximately 50 percent of its bags.

Mulberry’s British manufacturing page puts the Somerset workforce at around 600 craftspeople. The company has also run a leather goods apprenticeship with a local college since 2006, with graduates offered jobs in the factories.

The other half of production happens elsewhere, so a Mulberry bag is not automatically made in England. Shoppers who care about where a particular bag was made can check the label inside.

A difficult few years

The brand’s recent history has been rocky. In 2020, Mulberry stepped back from women’s ready-to-wear clothing. Sales fell sharply in the years that followed. The company reported a pre-tax loss of £31.8 million for the year to March 2025.

Its latest figures show some recovery. In its 2026 annual report, covering the year to March 28, 2026, Mulberry reported revenue up 4 percent to £125.5 million, with growth of 11 percent in the second half. The pre-tax loss narrowed to £8.9 million. The company now employs nearly 1,000 people.

The report opens with a line about its roots: Mulberry started in 1971 in Somerset as a family business, and the idea of a family and a community “is still central to our identity.”

Back on the runway

This year also brought clothes back. In March 2026, Mulberry appointed the Scottish designer Christopher Kane as creative director of women’s ready-to-wear. FashionUnited reported that the move was part of an effort to rebuild the brand’s fashion credentials, years after it exited ready-to-wear.

The new collection is a long way from belts sold at Portobello Market. But the factories in Somerset, close to where Joan Saul first ran production out of a garage, are still making the bags.