Cottonopolis reborn as textile spinning returns
A NORTH West-based textiles company is investing £5.8m to bring cotton spinning back to its spiritual home in Greater Manchester.
More than 100 new jobs will be created by the project, which will regenerate a former Victorian cotton mill in Tameside and use cutting-edge technology to produce luxury yarn for domestic and global markets.
English Fine Cottons, a trading arm of Culimeta-Saveguard Ltd, is investing £4.8m of its own money in the project, £2m of which is a loan from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) through its investment fund. A further £1m has been awarded as a grant by the N Brown RGF6 Textile Growth Programme (TGP).
Established over 20 years ago, Culimeta-Saveguard develops and manufactures technical textile products for a range of global markets. The company, which employs 230 staff, still operates the only remaining cotton system spinning plant in the UK, though it is today used to spin technical fibre yarns for the manufacture of protective clothing.
The new venture’s launch and growth plan for the next three years are fully funded. The company has already placed orders for key equipment and begun recruiting staff with a view to re-starting cotton spinning in the UK mid-2016.
English Fine Cottons will base its new production facility in the refurbished Tower Mill in Dukinfield. The facility will be the UK’s only cotton-spinning company – reviving this iconic trade more than 30 years after the last cotton mills closed in the 1980s.
The new mill will spin some of the most luxurious yarn in the world, using the finest raw materials from Barbados, India, the US and Egypt. The yarn will be used in collections for the high-end fashion market.
Andy Ogden, general manager of English Fine Cotton’s parent company Culimeta-Saveguard, said: “We are extremely proud to have won this major government grant today to help us make real our dream of bringing cotton spinning back to where it belongs – the North West of England.
“There is a strong demand across the world for luxury goods with the ‘Made in Britain’ stamp, and English Fine Cottons has the pedigree for the job. Our roots are in technical textile manufacturing and we are in the perfect location – able to draw on a local workforce with the necessary skills and expertise.”
Business minister Anna Soubry said: “Greater Manchester has a long tradition of cotton spinning so I’m delighted that this project, backed by government money, is using cutting-edge technology to bring the textile industry into the 21st century and creating jobs. There is a global demand for premium fashion made in the UK and this new mill is all part of a textile revival boosting our manufacturing capabilities.”
The TGP grant is the largest ever single award from the programme. Lorna Fitzsimons, director of the TGP, said: “Our programme is giving companies like English Fine Cottons the confidence to invest, and at a scale that makes it possible to build one of the most advanced cotton spinning plants in the world – in Greater Manchester. This success of the Alliance Project and the N Brown Textile Growth Programme is down to the amazing private sector collaboration that happens in Greater Manchester. Without the GMCA’s foresight and the partnership with industry and Government, none of this would have happened.”
The investment is the realisation of the opportunities highlighted by the Alliance Report, which earlier this year predicted the creation of up to 20,000 jobs by the UK textile sector by 2020 – worth £9bn to the UK economy.
The N Brown RGF6 Textiles Growth Programme is a national £97M initiative, backed by £19.5M from Round 6 of the Regional Growth Fund (RGF), which aims to support the national revival in textiles started by the first programme. It is led by an industry board chaired by N Brown, and including Marks & Spencer and other major British companies.
