THESE days if you see someone in an army, RAF or naval uniform, and they’re not a soldier, airman or submarine commander, the chances are their military uniform has been supplied by a Basildon firm called Field Textiles.

Based in a 40,000 sq ft warehouse in Hovefields, Field Textiles has cornered the market in the online supply of surplus or redundant clothes and other fabrics from the armed and emergency services.

Want a used guardsman’s busby, a submariner’s survival suit or a kilt from a fine old Scottish regiment? Just tap into Field Textiles’ website. Its storehouse hold just about the most colourful and varied ranges of gear this side of Portobello Road.

The recent history of the firm, and its unlikely path to its present boom business, is just as colourful as any of the uniforms it sells. A family firm, Field Textiles is run by the four Dipple brothers, originally from London. They began life as pub landlords, acquiring and running a string of taverns in Cambridge- bridgeshire.

Looking around for a second business string, they took a chance and acquired a shop selling military uniforms in London’s Old Street.

“That’s when we realised the potential for ex-military uniforms,” says managing director Michael Dipple.

A firm that started in the textiles trade with one supply outlet in London now employs 45 people, turns over £2million a year and has shown a growth rate of 20 per cent per annum every year for almost a decade.

This year it won an e-Government national award, presented to firms and organisations that deal with Government supplies. It received a personal congratulation message by video from Gordon Brown, although the PM didn’t go so far as to wear one of their uniforms for the camera.

Set up in 2001, Field Textiles’ big break came when the Dibble brothers, clearly always quick to spot an opportunity, bid for a contract from the Government’s newly-created Disposal Services Authority. Michael explains: “The stuff we deal in used to be sold off from sites around the country. The DSA was set up to deal centrally with uniforms and equipment from the emergency services.”

The company’s first successful bid to the DSA coincided with the early stages of the dotcom revolution, so as international sales manager Mark Bayford says: “Field Textiles and online retailing have developed side by side.

“I think the MoD have been quite surprised at how successful the site has been and how quickly it took off.”

Online sales have enabled Field Textiles to cut the cost of many standard products, such as camouflage suits, by as much as 50 per cent.

The main website through which the firm sells is funded and owned by the Ministry of Defence. “What we can offer is marketing expertise, using the website to best advantage,” says Michael. “We in turn benefit from the MoD’s input.

“It has the resources to back an up-to- date and secure website which has never been successfully hacked.

He adds: “The site gets ever more advanced. We also benefit from the fact that the MoD has a very good name all over the world and British military clothing is recognised as good quality stuff.”

The MoD has every reason to be delighted. “It’s the only website that makes money for them,” says Michael. “Which means that it is happy to go on pumping money into developing it.”

Field Textiles seems unaffected by the recession, thanks to the unending appeal of ex-military gear as cheap fashion. It is also bought by the likes of fishermen and outdoor workers, and by military re-enactment societies.

Rarer items are snapped up by collectors. There is also a steady line in sales of military uniforms to strippers.

“Whatever the product, there always seems to be a market for it somewhere,” says Mark. “We even managed to shift two million rations of water that had been stocked in naval lifeboats. Saudi Arabians bought that lot.”

All this, though, is minor stuff compared with the Napoleonic scale of the next planned innovation.

“We plan to open the site up to the public for buying and selling,” Michael explains. “The site has the brand strength and reach to be a genuine rival to Ebay, and it has MoD resources to back it as it expands.”

Unlike Ebay, the site won’t operate by auction. Michael explains: “If you have something like, say, a bike to sell, then you name the price, put it on the website, and wait for a response. You get the advantage of a huge customer base and you know this site isn’t some fly-by-night affair, it has the resources and high repute of the M0OD behind the site.”

The Dipple brothers probably won’t do too badly out of the scheme either. Michael says: “We went into the pub business when we were very young because, where we came from, the only people who were rich were the publicans. Since the smoking ban, the landlords haven’t been dong so well, but now we’ve found something better than beer.”

The website is www.fieldtextiles.co.uk