Singer Sewing Factories And Shops

Factories

The Singer company was initally established with 3 small factories dotted around New York, but by 1872 it had moved to a massive purpose built factory on a 32 acre site in Elzabethport, New Jersey. Even before this, the company had expanded to establish a factory in Glasgow Scotland. This was also quickly outgrown, and after a temporary move to an intermediate site, a new factory was built on a 46 acre site in Kilbowie, Clydebank Scotland.

The Kilbowie factory was always slightly larger than the Elizabethport one, but between them these 2 sites were the backbone of the Singer empire. They were of of equal status and shared design and devlopment work.

The dawn of the 20th century saw further expansion as factories were opened in Podolsk, Russia and Wittenberge, Germany. The Russian factory grew rapidly, so that in just 12 years it had almost the same production as Elizabethport.

Later in the 20th century, expansion saw the setting up of many small satellite factories in various countries. This was initially to minimise taxation and import duties, but then later to take advantage of lower manufacturing costs.

Some of the smaller factories could make complete machines, but others more often just assembled parts sent from the 2 main factories in Elizabethport and Kilbowie.

Many factories were allocated 'Location Codes' which appeared in the model numbers of machines and motors etc. to identify where they were made.

Please use the links below to see more details about specific factories

Singer Shops

Singer was unique in that for most of its history it only sold its products through its own chain of company owned retail shops. Singer shops were located in most major towns and cities.