Office Administrator - Ratsey and Lapthorn (Cowes) Ltd

Job Posted: 29 September 2026

• Contract Term: Permanent
• Location: Cowes, Isle of Wight
• Contract Type: Full or part time
• Salary: Depending on skills and experience
• Industries: Administration Manufacturing Sales & Marketing

Ratsey and Lapthorn is a world-renowned, historic sailmakers, the oldest in the world. Trading from Cowes since 1790, we have been making sails for 237 years. We are a global business, catering to yachts of all sizes, many of which are local to the Solent, but also UK wide, USA and the famous Classic Yachts of the mediterranean.

Whilst sailmaking will remain our principal activity, we have also recently launched a limited collection of handmade canvas and leather bags, these are unashamedly aimed at the luxury accessories sector and we hope to steadily grow this side of the business in the coming years.

We’re a small team, working Monday to Friday from our loft in Cowes. We have two positions to fill and we’d really like to hear from you if you really care about doing things properly, not afraid to get stuck in are keen to make changes for the better and are excited by the prospects that both sides of the business have to offer.

Role 1 - Office Administrator

The hours really depend on which skillsets you meet and the renumeration will reflect those skills and your experience.

What you’ll be doing:

• HR – contracts, tracking hours/holiday/sick leave/wellbeing of staff
• Health and Safety legal obligations
• Workplace culture – staff socials, keeping morale high!
• Day to Day emails/calls – assigning tasks, tracking the tasks
• Record keeping/Sharepoint organisation
• Shipping to uk and wordwide
• Customer Management
• Admin support to the Production manager
• Tracking quotes
• Maintaining the archives
• Admin support to the Director
• Customer and supplier relations
• Invoicing

Bookeeping

• Day to day bookkeeping using Xero

Bags

• Manage any sales received – picking, packing and shipping
• Stock checks
• Record Keeping
• Event support

Potential additional areas of responsibility for the right candidate:

• Social media and PR
• Assistant to the Operations Manager

We’re not expecting one person to walk through the door that can tick all of these boxes but we are looking for:

• Strong organisational skills
• Previous office experience to a similar level
• Team Focussed
• Good communicator
• Tech savvy 
• Self motivated
• Someone who can bring their experience to improve our systems
• Experience with office 365, Xero, excel, shopify, sharepoint
• Strong customer service

Being a sailor is not essential, but a knowledge of terms regarding sails and sailing would be very helpful.