My family kilt firm is 117 years old and designed tartan for presidents and astronauts... now we're embracing AI

When Ewan MacDonald, 40, took over Houston Kiltmakers during the pandemic, the family firm was still writing cheques.

His first move once his father, Ken, handed over the reins was to sign up for online banking. That innocuous change marked an embrace of technology that had, until then, largely passed Houston by.

Out went some of the more lenient workplace policies and in came HR systems, stronger health and safety and more computing power.

MacDonald may be ushering in a new era, but he also feels a responsibility to the generations before him.

His great-grandfather, William, opened the shop in Paisley in 1909 designing tartan for royalty, presidents and even astronauts in the years since. 

Ken, who led Houston from the 1970s, designed a commemorative Apollo 12 Tartan in 2012, with NASA approaching the kiltmaker to design another for a mission a few years ago.

MacDonald hopes tartan designs will become an increasingly lucrative portion of the business, alongside Highland outfit sales and hires.

‘Many families want their own tartan, Americans love tartan and companies want a tartan as brand identity and it’s a bit of fun as well.’ Houston has designed for companies including Domino’s and Boeing.

While his vision for Houston is now clear, MacDonald confesses he spent much of his 20s ‘not focused on the business as much’. But unlike his brother and sister, who have spent only brief periods at the firm, he knew he would one day run the family business.

‘The pandemic thrust the responsibility onto me. I got a clear read through of exactly what was going on. Covid came at the worst time - the usual summer sales rush didn’t come. We went into survival mode and slowly came out of it. You survive; you just get on with it.’

There were, inevitably, disagreements between father and son and MacDonald admits: ‘I thought I knew everything. I didn’t.’

Did his father offer any wise words? ‘Just stick in and gie it laldy, which basically means you’ve got to work hard… but every so often something will happen and always be prepared.’

He can take some comfort in the predictability of sales. Weddings provide a reliable income stream, making up 60 per cent of Houston’s revenue, shielding it from the worst of the cost of living crisis.

‘People are always blowing the budget at their weddings. We’re at the high end of the market, we’re not in a race to the bottom. A kilt lasts a lifetime... It’s cut for growth, passed down for generations [so] it’s the most economical thing you can buy.’

Its international market is making up an ‘ever-growing percentage’ - currently around a quarter - of revenue.

The Trump effect...

Houston has felt the effect of President Trump, whose mother was born and raised in Scotland, in a more positive way. 

More Americans are taking DNA tests, finding out they’re Celts or Scots and turning to Houston to design a family tartan, says MacDonald.‘The US is so big for us now, they’ve got money and they love Scotland.’

A proud Scotsman, MacDonald says the influx of international orders is a boost for the Scottish economy, too.

The kiltmaker generates around £1million in revenue ‘or thereabouts year in, year out’ but its seasonal nature- most sales and hires fall between March and October - limits growth.

By now he’s grown accustomed to January and February being ‘really bad’ and he says ‘it is getting harder to run a business’ thanks to rising staff costs and taxes. But the pandemic remains the biggest challenge he has faced so far - ‘if you can survive that, you can survive almost anything’.

How we are building AI into a 117-year-old business

Despite his stoicism, MacDonald is facing an uphill battle to bring the 117-year-old firm into the 21st century. Online banking might have been ticked off the list but he questions whether Houston can grow beyond £1million a year.

MacDonald hopes a Knowledge Transfer Partnership - a UK government-funded programme that connects a business with an academic or research institution - might help. In the first year, it has confirmed there were parts of the firm that were ‘too old-fashioned’. 

That has seen Houston pivot to artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up the ordering process and an ‘AI mirror’, which will allow customers anywhere in the world to try on a full outfit before ordering, helping to boost international orders.

Plenty of Houston won’t change, though, including the old displays, the kiltmakers’ attention to detail, and crucially the use of a tape measure.

‘You get grandfathers coming in with their sons and grandsons, so you just keep doing what you do and give them a high-quality product and good service.’

Looking further ahead, can Houston keep it in the family? MacDonald’s eight-year-old son is not quite there yet - he comes into the office now and again - but a sale of the business is off the cards.

‘I wouldn’t sell it, not even if Elon Musk came along.’