A W Hainsworth
Weaving 240 Years of Heritage into a Digital Future
Solutions
2025
Weaving 240 Years of Heritage into a Digital Future
Client
A W Hainsworth
Location
Yorkshire, England
The Goal
AW Hainsworth is a proud brand woven into the fabric of British history. For over 240 years, their craftsmanship has defined quality, from the iconic red of the Royal Guards’ uniforms to the world-renowned green of championship snooker tables. They approached Fishtank with the goal of creating a digital flagship that not only matched their incredible reputation but also celebrated it in the eyes of a modern audience. Their existing website didn’t tell this story, instead presenting them as a corporate supplier rather than the premium, heritage-rich brand they truly are.
The Challenge & Strategy
Legacy Meets Modern Needs
The core challenge was to close the gap between AW Hainsworth’s prestigious legacy and its dated digital presence. The old site felt too corporate and led users on a confusing journey, making it hard for visitors to explore the product range or appreciate their deep history. Technically, there were significant opportunities to improve performance, with slow load speeds and poor accessibility standards creating a frustrating user experience.
Our strategy was to take AW Hainsworth on a complete digital transformation, guided by one key principle: balancing heritage with modernity. We needed to build a high-performance, accessible, and visually stunning website that would not only showcase their products but also turn their 240-year history into their most compelling and interactive asset.
Our Solution
Heritage Brought to Life
The heart of the new website is the story it tells. We designed and built a beautiful, interactive heritage timeline, transforming their legacy from a simple page of text into an immersive, visually-led journey. This standout feature allows users to experience the brand’s incredible history, building trust and setting them apart in a competitive market.
Visually, the design leans into their iconic brand colours, pairing them with elegant typography and elevated photography to create a confident, premium feel. We completely restructured the user journey, introducing a clean, sticky navigation system that allows users to explore specific brands and sectors with a single click, guided by clear calls-to-action.
Behind the scenes, the website was rebuilt from the ground up in WordPress, using the flexible Gutenberg block system to empower the AW Hainsworth team to edit and adapt content with ease. Our development team undertook a significant performance overhaul, and despite introducing rich animations and large-scale imagery, the new site now achieves speed scores above 80 on both desktop and mobile. We also rebuilt the site to the highest accessibility standards, ensuring an inclusive experience for all users.
The Result
AW Hainsworth now has a digital presence that is a true reflection of its enduring excellence. The new website has completely redefined their brand perception, positioning them as the innovative, iconic heritage brand they have always been.
The site’s vastly improved performance and intuitive navigation provide a seamless and engaging experience for visitors, allowing them to explore the depth of Hainsworth’s heritage while easily finding the products they need. More than just a functional hub, the site has become a powerful digital expression of tradition and innovation, perfectly equipping AW Hainsworth to write their next chapter.
Nominee
