Boost as uniforms return to UK...
LANCASHIRE’S textile industry has won an unexpected Brexit boost as one of Britain’s largest providers of workers’ uniforms has brought manufacturing back to the UK.
Alsico had been buying fabric from Italy, but the slump in the value of the pound drove up its costs and the contract has been transferred to Bolton fabric company Carrington Workwear, whose fabrics go into uniforms for McDonald’s and the British Army.
Alsico makes 75,000 uniforms a week and the contract is worth around £10million a year for the 125-year-old Carrington, boosting employee numbers by almost 15 per cent.
David Toon, chief executive of Preston-based Alsico, said: ‘Due to the exchange rate, we’ve brought the vast majority of our fabric manufacture to Lancashire, creating jobs and allowing our new supplier, Carrington, to expand.
‘Today, a plant in the UK can be as efficient at making fabric as anywhere in the world,’ he added.
Carrington sales director Neil Davey said: ‘This is our single biggest contract and I was very pleased when we won it. It happened very quickly. They decided in December and we started in February. It’s all gone very smoothly.’
Alsico’s decision to move fabric manufacture back to the UK comes even though its Italian supplier had worked with the company for 50 years. But sterling’s weakness made Alsico reconsider its options.
Alsico’s biggest single customer is Johnson Service Group, which rents out workwear to companies across the country.