UK NEWS

END OF AN ERA AS PRINGLE PLANT FACES AXE

FAMOUS: But Pringle faces competition

Sunday June 1,2008

By Tom Martin

KNITWEAR firm Pringle yesterday signalled the end of almost 200 years of tradition as it announced its Borders manufacturing plant may close with the loss of 80 jobs.

The luxury brand, owned by the Hong Kong-based Fang Brothers, is proposing to keep a head office and sales function in Hawick, Roxburghshire, with 30 employees.

Known for its famous Argyle pattern and worn by stars including Madonna, Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson, Pringle said it was responding to an “extremely competitive” market.

Managers have already held talks on the proposed redundancies with the GMB union.

But the move comes as another blow to the country’s £1billion-a-year textile industry, which as been hit by relentless job cuts, factory closures and a sharp increase in foreign competition.

SC Fang & Sons took the company over in 2000 from Dawson International and since then has invested up to £45million. But Pringle is understood to have made losses of £9million last year.

Chief executive Douglas Fang said: “We have to consider ways to improve the performance of the business and closure of the manufacturing operation at the plant is, very regrettably, something we must consider.”

A source said competition had come not from the Far East but from Italy, where manufacturing costs were about 30 per cent lower than in Scotland.

The firm, founded in Hawick by Robert Pringle in 1815, now hopes to be able to buy some products from other manufacturers in Scotland on an ongoing basis.

The move was described as “devastating” by Roxburgh and Berwickshire MSP John Lamont.

“This is bad news for scores of Pringle employees, their families, the local textile industry and the community,” he said.

Hawick provost Zandra Elliot, who worked for several years at Pringle, said: “There is great sadness in the town. There have been rumours for months but we could never get answers from management. My shock is that the factory only employs 110 people – there used to be more than 1,000 there.”