Lea-Ray Ltd was formed in 1978 when the founder, Ray Leader had the idea of a football supporters jacket in the clubs colours.

Our first sale was to Watford FC, then under the management of Graham Taylor and the Chairmanship of Elton John. This jacket really was the first of its kind, and launched Lea-Ray into the supply of sports related clothing to many of the leading clubs, including Chelsea, Manchester United, Glasgow Celtic and Nottingham Forest. The boom in television coverage however, put paid to these sales when the ‘big’ boys of the sports world, Umbro, Reebok Nike etc simply threw money at the clubs in order to secure their business, knowing that the exposure with the likes of the BBC and Sky Sports guaranteed an increase in their sales potential.

With the market changing, Lea-Ray branched out into 4 specific areas:

CORPORATE - SPORTS - EDUCATIONAL - PROMOTIONAL.

This allowed us to focus on specific products within a specific customer base.

CORPORATE CLOTHING: With the purchase of Boxley Careerwear in 2001, Lea Ray had the experience necessary to offer the more formal side of corporate wear, including both men and ladies business suits. (With this, we have managed to keep a couple of football clubs in Wolverhampton Wanderers and Birmingham City,) We now supply to many of the larger companies in Kent, not only with these products but also with the work wear used in manufacturing or distribution.

SPORTS: We today have a growing business to local clubs and associations, and are the local agents for the brands Pro Star and Canterbury New Zealand. With a fully stocked showroom we are better equipped than most to offer the complete package to local clubs and associations. Our products range from Football to Rugby, Hockey, Cricket and Speedway, but we welcome the challenge from all other sports to supply to their specifications.

We also have a small shop at the Canterbury Rugby Club where we supply all of their requirements.

We are sponsors for the 2 Kent football cup competitions for both senior and junior clubs, and are proud to have been associated with the Football Association since 1980.

EDUCATIONAL: This incorporates Schools, Colleges and Universities with the supply of uniform and coursework products. We offer both retail and wholesale, and have contracts with many customers for the supply of all clothing requirements. Our retail shop is open 6 days per week supplying local schools and companies with uniforms or corporate clothing.

PROMOTIONAL: These products include not only clothing, but items such as pens, watches, golf accessories, umbrella’s, key rings and many others.

The focus here is to help the customer maximise the identity of their company or when sponsoring an event.

A growth area for the company is ‘bespoke’ clothing, in other words, we make to order !This really is a full turning circle for the company, because that is how we started. We can produce almost any garment specifically to a customers design, right down to the buttons and zips!!

No job is to small, and whoever the customer is the key to our success has to be CUSTOMER SERVICE. Our data base of customers still has many of the same names as when we first started so we must be doing something right!


All we ask is the opportunity to quote...