Wholesale and B2B

Yes, swatches may be obtained for most fabric/designs. An option for ordering a swatch is found on relevant product pages (temporarily unavailable online). Unfortunately because filling an order for swatches involves many of the same steps required to fill a normal product order, we do have to make a small charge for swatches. This charge (up tp £10 max.) will be refunded on request if you subsequently make a single purchase in excess of £100.

Swatches of linen double damask and linen damask are available.

Thomas Ferguson can weave Linen Damask fabric up to approx. 3m (117 inches) wide. Plain linen is also available in a similar maximum width. There is almost no limit to the length which can be woven.

If you require table or bedlinen of a wider width it is a common practice for the company to join fabrics with a side or centre seams to increase the width.

Yes, this is what Thomas Ferguson specialise in, we are pleased to offer custom sizes in many of our collections.

For further information or to order a custom size, please contact us and we will be happy to help you.

Please note that custom items are not returnable unless defective, and as they are often designed, woven, finished and made up from scratch they can take 12-14 working weeks to complete. Where design work is required there will also be an extra charge.

Custom sizes which are made up from standard fabric will take only a few weeks, and can be fast tracked in a shorter period if required, at a small extra charge.

Please note we normally require orders for any special to be greater than £150.

Thomas Ferguson Irish linen has nearly 200 damask tablecloth designs. Most of these are from our 19th and 20th century archives and have not yet been put in a format to weave on a modern loom. Many have not been woven for many years.

If you want a very unique tablecloth or napkin woven from these archive designs please email for details. There will be an extra charge for design work.

Please see an album of our archived designs by clicking here.

Thomas Ferguson is primarily a weaving business. The company does have a few seamstresses and cutters, but this small team is employed exclusively to make up the table linen element of the company business.

The company does not provide a commission sewing service, nor does it work on customers own fabric as the capacity of the employees is fully utilised on Thomas Ferguson's own business.

The simple answer to this question is yes.

The main fabric widths Thomas Ferguson carry have a finished width of c.150cm and c.183cm. In these two widths we can supply special dye batches down to a about 250 metres in length. This figure can be reduced down to about 60 metres length, at an extra cost, for the 150cm width only.

In the wider widths up to c. 3 metres wide the minimum dye batch is also 250 metres.

For a special dye batch the lead time is approximately 6 to 9 weeks. Time is taken to match your colour and get the customers approval of the colour from a dyed swatch. Once the colour has been matched and approved repeat orders for the special colour can be around 4-5 weeks.

Drop shipping is becoming increasingly popular with online retailers and suppliers. Thomas Ferguson's online wholesale store is now offering our wholesale customers the option to use a drop shipping facility alongside the standard shipping method. This new process is really very simple to use.

The online drop shipping enables retailers to sell Thomas Ferguson linens without having to hold large quantities of stock. You sell the product to the customer at a retail price which you decide. Once your customer has placed the order with you, you then place the order with the Ferguson online wholesale website, in the normal way, at a wholesale price. At the shopping basket stage, you add the new shipping address for your customer, and choose the shipping option. Ferguson's then send the product straight to your customer. This saves any further effort on your part, and also saves one extra shipping cost, from you to your customer. You invoice your own customer, and you keep the difference between wholesale and retail prices for your efforts.

Due to initial set up costs for the account we do ask that the first order is at least £300 (US $500 or €400). There is no limit after that. However, we would remind customers that the shipping costs can be disproportionately high on small or low value orders.

Thomas Ferguson's will not solicit your customer for sales thereafter.

If you have any queries regarding our drop shipping facility please do not hesitate to contact us.

The minimum wholesale order size is:

Thomas Ferguson range: £400 (€475 / US $500)

Thomas Ferguson however consider these very small orders and do not encourage wholesale customers to place orders this small on a regular basis. They are not good for us or our customers. As at wholesale prices they cannot cover overheads, and are disproportionately expensive to ship. Few manufacturers survive by offering wholesale prices for retail quantities.

To encourage larger order sizes there is free packing and delivery within the UK and Ireland for orders over £1,000 in value.

There are currently no minimum orders on the Thomas Ferguson online wholesale store for repeat business, of stock items. However, to open an account an initial order of £300 ($500) must be paced to demonstrate a degree of commitment, and to help pay initial account set-up costs.

For any specials we really need an order of several hundred pounds to be able to quote competitively. If it is a special we have made before, possibly for someone else, some of the set-up and development costs are already paid so we may be able to accept smaller orders. The minimum order size for any special (non standard item) is currently £150. If no other items are being ordered it is of course the full £400.

Thomas Ferguson provides an online wholesale drop shipping service for the use of Thomas Ferguson wholesale customers who place orders via the Thomas Ferguson online wholesale facility Then specify that the goods are sent to the wholesale customers third-party retail customers.

If a non-trade customer has had an account approved in error, we reserve the right to cancel and refund any orders placed. If an order is accepted in error from a non-trade customer and despatched the customer may keep the goods, however any future order will be cancelled and the account closed. The end-customer will not be dis-advantaged.

The prices on all online purchases have some discount built in. This is to incentivize customers to use this means of ordering. The prices in the online wholesale store cannot be used if a customer wishes to telephone or fax their order. In this case prices should be taken from the latest Thomas Ferguson printed price list, which is available on request.

Thomas Ferguson is a factory and needs bulk orders to apply economies of scale.

For orders of the same type of item over about £4000 in value you will probably find custom items are not much more expensive than standard items.

Standard items have long ago paid their set-up costs. Which may include product design, set-up costs for weaving, drawing up technical specifications or data sheets, shrinkage tests, etc.

Custom products have to pay for all these costs out of often one job only, as many custom items are only made on a one-off basis.

Thomas Ferguson Co. Ltd very much want to help good wholesale customers in any way they can to increase their business.

Therefore the company will grant credit terms to regular trade customers with whom there is a regular trading relationship.

Credit terms are not normally offered to new customers on a first purchase, or for small purchases, or for those who only do small amounts of business each year.

If a first time customer is placing a larger order credit terms may be granted subject to credit checks.

Credit checks are regularly carried out and terms may be reduced or removed if there is an unfavourable report following a check.

It is the aim of Thomas Ferguson to reply to every genuine enquiry. There are a few reasons why we might not get back to customers.

1. Your email may have been stopped by our spam software.
2. Thomas Ferguson gets a lot of bogus or scam enquiries. The company has a few trigger points which indicate an inquiry being of this nature. Unfortunately it can sometimes catch genuine enquiries from good customers. It is a company rule not to enter into communication with potential scammers.
3. Even with good systems there can be human error of one type or another.

If we don't get back to you please don't give up. We really do want to help you. It's still difficult to beat a phone call.

To get Thomas Ferguson linens at wholesale prices you must register on the wholesale part of our site. Or speak to a member of the sales team.

The main purpose of offering wholesale prices is to enable third party companies to trade in Thomas Ferguson's Irish linen.

Thomas Ferguson Irish Linens is pleased to offer wholesale prices to trade customers who manufacture or sell linens, or to hotels, restaurants or laundries who use linen in significant quantities as part of their business.

We do not generally offer wholesale prices to businesses in unrelated trades who wish to buy small quantities for gifts, or for their own use. Simply being in business does not qualify a customer for wholesale prices.

Thomas Ferguson will offer discounts to business customers, from unrelated businesses, who wish to purchase significant quantities of linens for one-off promotions or gifts. This would normally be expected to be in excess of £1000 minimum.

Few manufacturers survive by offering wholesale prices for retail quantities.

Thomas Ferguson has a very wide product range and cannot carry large stocks of every item. Fergusons does try to carry some stock of all the items listed in the standard wholesale price list, or on the online shop.

Ferguson's usually tries to carry sufficient stock of each of the items in the price list to last 2-3 months. This is based on historical sales. However, sometimes sales of a particular item, or a range of items, takes off and we are caught short. Fergusons is a small business and we rely on our retailers, and distributors also carrying some buffer stock so that the end user can always buy Ferguson's linens.

If you wish always to have stock available it is definitely best to try to plan and place forward orders and then call them off over the year. These can then be woven early and made up ready for you to call off when you wish.