After running our hire shop Dickies (www.dickiessuithire.co.uk) for many years, we found that we were buying bits and pieces of odds and ends from all sorts of places. Following a trip to the International Formalwear Association (IFA) convention in Chicago, we discovered that in the US there are a number of wholesalers who supply all those unlikely products under one roof. Realising that the UK's blossoming suit hire industry needed such a supplier, we founded Finishing Tuxes in 1994 selling cufflinks to canes, bow ties to button covers - all the accessories a hire shop needs at the end of one phone line, rather than ten.

As well as being a hire shop supplier, we are also the organisers of the annual menswear hire shop exhibition named 'Strictly Formal'
(www.strictlyformal.net) which takes place in Birmingham, mid November.

We have also developed www.menswear-hire.co.uk, which is an online database for suit hire shops and suppliers alike to input their details free of charge. Visitors can search the site to effortlessly find exactly what they are looking for.