Photograph of Amelia Jackson and her son Thomas.

Amelia Jackson Industries was conceived in 1989, by Alan and Val Glasser, a Mother and Son enterprise.

After purchasing cotton rugs in Zimbabwe a few years earlier and seeing the good value and the fact that they were machine washable we decided that there was an opening for good quality cotton rugs in South Africa.

In the early years because we were small and had very few contacts in the textile industry, we struggled to locate the specific yarns and cotton supplies we were looking for, however as our production increased these difficulties eased.
It wasn't long before we purchased our third and forth looms as sales continued to increase. We were now selling at most of the top Craft Markets in and around Cape Town, directly to the public and we were a regular feature at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront market.
At this Waterfront market we came into contact with people from all over South Africa and International tourists who bought many of our rugs and showed a very keen interest in our products.
A few years down the line in 1994 we decided to go the route of supplying shops and chain stores on a wholesale basis.
We found that we no longer had the time or the capacity to supply the markets and as a result we pulled off them.
As a result we have seen a steady increase in our customer base as well as our sales over the years We moved out of the house environment into our first business premises when we were bursting at the seams and moved into premises that seemed enormous at the time but soon the landlord had to add on a large extension to accommodate further looms.

In 1998 we needed to expand again and moved into new premises in Wynberg, Cape Town.
The name Amelia Jackson was decided upon when we were searching for a name in 1989 that had a Family values basis to it and as Amelia was Val's grandmother and Alan's great grandmother and was a weaver many years before in the U.K. this seemed most appropriate