Quick Facts
Biography
R. M. Williams is an Australian footwear and clothing company. It is best known for producing chelsea boots. The company was founded by Reginald Murray Williams and now forms part of the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy Group.
Early years
R.M. Williams began selling saddles to Sir Sidney Kidman, a wealthy pastoralist in 1932. He soon had a small factory running in his father's back shed in Adelaide that rapidly expanded.
Products
Williams' most successful products were handcrafted riding boots. These bootsunique when they were introduced to the market, as they consisted of a single piece of leather that was stitched at the rear of the boot (the models that featured an elastic side have been particularly popular). As of 2013, the R.M. Williams Company produced handcrafted riding boots, with the use of 70 hand processes and a single piece of leather externally (with the inside lining being made up of several pieces).
As of 2002, about 80% of R. M. Williams products were made outside of Australia, mostly in China and South East Asia. This included lace up footwear, leather bags and accessories, T-shirts, caps, seasonal shirts/shorts, polo shirts and some leather wallets. Over recent years R.M. Williams has focused on becoming a luxury shoe company aimed at city-dwellers. As of 2019, it operated around 50 of its own retail stores worldwide, and its boots were available in 500 department stores. R.M. Williams boots are often worn by Australian politicians. Pairs of the boots have also been given to foreign leaders by Australian prime ministers.
R.M. Williams' Craftsman boots were selected as the Australian Army's standard parade boots in 2013 following a competitive tender.
The company brand is a Texas longhorn cattle head.
Ownership
Following the founding of the R.M. Williams company in 1932, Williams sold the business in 1988 to the long established South Australian stock and station agents Bennett & Fisher. That business went into receivership in 1993, after banks were concerned about $16 million of debts.
R.M. Williams Pty Ltd was then placed under the ownership of long-time friend Ken Cowley, who acted in partnership with Australian business mogul Kerry Stokes, and together with his family, presided over R.M. Williams Pty Ltd for two decades. The company employs 600 people globally, 300 of them based in South Australia.
On 26 March 2013, the Cowley family released a statement which announced an intention to sell the company to a new owner for $100 million. The statement described the sale process as an assessment of "external commercial growth and expansion plans", and the list of potential buyers included Oroton Group, Premier Investments and LVMH. As of March 2013, R.M. Williams Pty Ltd consisted of 50 retail stores, 900 stockists and exports to 15 countries. In April 2013, R.M. Williams sold a 49.9% stake to L Capital, the private equity affiliate of LVMH.
Today, the company is a wholly 100% owned subsidiary of the Singapore-based L Capital RMW (Singapore) Pte Ltd, a private equity firm of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy Group. In May 2019 R.M. Williams was placed for sale, with its owners reportedly seeking $A400-500 million.
R. M. Williams' headquarters is located in Salisbury, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide.