Persistence pays off for WL Gore - sportstextiles: Lea SportsTextiles

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Persistence pays off for WL Gore

18/11/2016
WL Gore chief executive, Terri Kelly, has said she is proud of the company’s fabrics division having reached its fortieth anniversary. Speaking on November 17 at an event to mark the commercial breakthrough of its Gore-Tex product, Ms Kelly said: “Not many organisations last 40 years. I’m humbled and feel an incredible responsibility for taking forward the company’s values and make them work in the very different environment we have today.”

She explained that, when WL Gore started in 1958 it had a “limited portfolio” in electronics, but that the “incredible invention” of ePTFE, which outgoing chairman Bob Gore discovered in a laboratory in the basement of his home in 1969, the company was able to put another group of divisions, including fabrics, on the map.

“We made mistakes, and it took a long time, longer than people think, to make it into a viable business,” the chief executive said. “It took us until 1993 to achieve return on the investment in Gore-Tex, but we persisted.”


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