Thirty years after cotton spinning died out in Britain, Cottonopolis has been reborn.
A German-backed company is building a new cotton-spinning line in Manchester, the spiritual home of the industry, thanks to worldwide demand for high-quality thread for the fashion industry. The new mill will spin some of the most luxurious yarn in the world, using raw materials from Barbados, India, the US and Egypt.
The £5.8m investment by Culimeta-Saveguard, which is backed by government money and which will create 100 jobs, is to rebuild a supply chain for luxury British clothing makers. Countries such as India and China, which undercut British mills in the 1970s and 1980s, leading to thousands of job losses, are now customers for expensive British clothes and furnishings.
Andy Ogden, company general manager, said: “WeΆre extremely proud to have won this major government grant to help us make real our dream of bringing cotton spinning back where it belongs: the northwest of England.”
The company, which also has operations in Italy and the US, has set up a subsidiary, English Fine Cottons, and will occupy a refurbished Victorian mill in Dukinfield, Greater Manchester, one of hundreds that hummed with activity a century ago.
“There is a strong demand across the world for luxury goods with the ΅Made in BritainΆ 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 to draw on a local workforce with the necessary skills,” Mr Ogden added.
Emma Willis, who makes the shirts for the actors playing James Bond, said: “The only thing we donΆt buy in the UK is cotton, which I would very much like to do. The project could hopefully utilise the abundant skills base for textile manufacturing in the UK, as we remain exceptional as a country in specialist manufacturing. From cotton spinning to pattern cutting — the skills are there to make in Britain.”
The UK is the 15th-largest textiles maker in the world and exported £5.5bn worth of clothes in 2013. Cotton is still traded according to “Liverpool rules” set in the British port by the International Cotton Association and several traders are based there.
English Fine Cottons is investing £4.8m of its own, £2m of which is a loan from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. A further £1m has been awarded by the N Brown Textile Growth Programme (TGP), the brainchild of clothing retailer N BrownΆs former chairman Lord Alliance, using the governmentΆs regional growth fund.
The Alliance Report this year predicted the creation of up to 20,000 jobs by the UK textile sector by 2020. YorkshireΆs woollen industry is also enjoying a revival with new spinning and dyeing plants opening. The sector employs 100,000 and is worth £9bn to the UK.
Anna Soubry, business minister, said: “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.”
Lorna Fitzsimons, TGP director, said “The global industry could never have predicted that cotton spinning would come back to the UK. Our programme is giving companies like English Fine Cottons the confidence to invest, at a scale that makes it possible to build one of the most advanced cotton spinning plants in the world in Greater Manchester.”
Culimeta-Saveguard runs the only remaining cotton spinning plant in the UK, although it is used purely for technical fibre yarns for the manufacture of protective clothing. It also makes engineering textiles and exports more than 85 per cent of production.
