Denber Rubber was known for dip moulded latex items such as corselets, gloves, stockings, dresses, bra tops and shorts

DENBER RUBBER: A CHAPTER CLOSES ON 50 YEARS OF LATEX HISTORY

Denber Rubber Ltd, the long-established British producer of dip moulded latex garments and accessories, has closed after trading for just over 50 years, bringing to an end a distinguished chapter in the history of latex product manufacture.

Founded by Denis Rogers in 1973 — originally as Denber International Rubber Company — Denber Rubber continued in later years under Denis’s son Geoffrey and his wife Jennie. Its closure was officially announced on April 8, in a Facebook statement citing the couple’s desire to retire and sell the business as a going concern.

However, rather like that albeit more youthful British latex manufacturer Yummy Gummy, whose founder Rebecca Allsop put her business making custom clothing sheeting from liquid latex on the market just over a year ago, it seems the world did not beat a path to Denber’s door. Its directors say they spent two years “working hard to achieve a successful sale, but sadly it was not to be”. Their Facebook statement explains that additional considerations influencing the decision to close Denber included “the personal stress and health risks” associated today with running a small business in the UK.

Black and red were always Denber Rubber’s main latex colours, but it did some production runs in attractive yellow too

“There is far too much legislation, government-enforced annual increases in minimum wage, corporation tax changes meaning more tax due on less profit, obligatory employee pension schemes, etc etc,” the statement continues. “This has severely eaten into profits in what has become a smaller market due to the global (planned and orchestrated on purpose) economic downturn. In addition there have been massive increases in utility costs and raw materials. All of this takes a heavy toll on one’s personal health and wellbeing.”

The statement goes on to castigate politicians for having “no clue at all about what it is like to run a small business today in the UK”, and for constantly preaching about global warming and climate change while they themselves “swan around in gas guzzling cars and private jets”. The inference it draws from this is that, seemingly, “governments do not want small businesses to survive and are only interested in tax-avoiding multi-national corporate entities”.

The couple add: “We fully appreciate that our long-term customers and loyal staff will be directly affected by our decision.” They say that decision was not taken lightly, but feel there are no longer incentives to be “entrepreneurial or run a unique niche small business” in the UK.

Inflatables and insertables were produced by Denber in various styles up to what might be considered eye-watering extremes

“We have proven ourselves over 50 years to be more than capable of delivering quality UK manufactured products to a global market,” they insist. And yet (just like Yummy Gummy) they were unable to find a buyer for a business that included “bespoke manufacturing systems using own-designed machines and processes that guaranteed a consistently uniform high quality product, made in the UK”.

Despite Denber Rubber’s long and distinguished history, it’s possible that many of today’s latex enthusiasts may not have even heard of the brand. That is because, while Denber did sell direct to the public, its core business was always in selling its products wholesale — which is basically the exact opposite to the business models of 99 percent of today’s artisan latex clothing brands, who mostly sell direct to the end user and, at best, rarely more than dabble in wholesaling.

It’s quite possible, therefore that you own (or have owned) Denber Rubber products without even realising it. Because, even if you’ve never been in the market for the type of basic rubber items like those sold by sex shops, many of the retail latex brands you do know will have included unbranded Denber-made products like gloves and play items in their ranges — because they were widely recognised as the best quality moulded pieces available.

This final image posted by Denber on Twitter/X on Aug 15, 2023 features Cat Mask, Plunge Neck Mini Dress & Fingerless Shoulder Gloves

In case you didn’t realise this, tailored latex fashion garments (such as those from Libidex) are made by cutting panels from sheet latex, which are then glued (or sometimes stitched) together. Whereas dip moulded garments are made by pouring liquid latex into anatomical moulds to produce one-piece, seamless items.

The moulding process is good for producing basics — gloves, stockings etc — that can be sold at lower price points than tailored latex. But more complex moulded latex garments (such as long-sleeved tops or dresses) can be more prone to failing at high stress points like armpits in the garment. So a cheap moulded style of that kind will almost certainly not last as long as a tailored garment.

All images in this article from twitter.com/Denberrubber