He brought in new finance with John Baker Richards as a partner, in 1825, trading as Maberly & Co. James William Freshfield and Robert Langford became involved as property trustees, in 1829.

[3] At its height, Richard had its Broadford Works in Aberdeen; also spinning and power looms at Montrose, and bleachfields at Rubislaw and Craigo.

With the decline in traditional flax spinning activities, in the mid-1960s the company embarked upon a programme of development of synthetic yarn ranges which it maintained with few changes until the 21st century.

Workers were angered not only by news of the closure itself but by the way they discovered what had happened: payments simply stopped arriving in their bank accounts.

Aside from global economic conditions, one of the main factors causing the closure was the company pension scheme which by November 2004 faced a shortfall of £5m.