By 2004, the Swanndri brand was under the stewardship of woollen textile manufacturer Alliance Textiles. It was there that senior Alliance Textiles managers Julian Bowden and Gerard Kilpatrick saw an opportunity for the iconic Kiwi brand. On July 1st 2004, together with friends Bryan Pearson and George Cowper, they bought Swanndri. The four friends, with one hundred years experience between them in the rag trade, shared a vision to take Swanndri and its values of family, honesty, longevity, comfort and protection to a new global audience hungry for the authentic.