NEW SCOTTISH COMPANY OFFERS “A PROSPEROUS AND SUSTAINABLE FUTURE” FOR HARRIS TWEED
The Harris Tweed industry has been given a major boost with the re-opening of a mill at Shawbost on the Isle of Lewis by a new Scottish-owned company, Harris Tweed Hebrides.
Today’s announcement that the mill – which has been closed for the past year - is about to resume production has been greeted with relief and enthusiasm on the island where concerns have been mounting about the future of the industry. Harris Tweed Hebrides intends to supply customers at the top end of the fashion market who might otherwise have been lost to the industry.
The main shareholder in the new company is Ian Taylor, a Scottish businessman who has spent the last 30 years in the oil industry and has a home on the west coast. He said: “As a long-standing admirer of Harris Tweed, I see this as a tremendously exciting opportunity to promote it as one of the world’s great fabrics. I believe that Harris Tweed Hebrides can bring a new approach to a classic industry”.
By a unique law, Harris Tweed can only be produced in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland by weavers working at their own homes. The cloth is then finished in island mills. A large mill, located in Stornoway, was recently sold to a Yorkshire-based company which has said that it intends to limit its production to a small range of patterns which will be used to manufacture men’s jackets.
Mr Taylor said: “Recent developments in the industry created an opportunity to acquire and re-open the Shawbost mill. This will ensure not only that existing markets can obtain Harris Tweed but also that there will be innovation and new ideas to take forward its huge potential. What we are doing is complementary to, rather than in competition with, the other business model”.
The new company’s chief executive is Ian Angus MacKenzie who, for the past 14 years has been chief executive of the Harris Tweed Authority, the industry regulator which protects the Orb trademark and guarantees the authenticity of the cloth.
Another vastly experienced figure in the industry, Rae Mackenzie, becomes sales director of Harris Tweed Hebrides. Mr Mackenzie said that customers around the world had responded with “enormous relief and enthusiasm” to the news that supplies of Harris Tweed, bearing the Orb trade mark, would be available again from the Shawbost mill, which has always enjoyed a particularly high reputation within the industry.
Former Government Minister, Brian Wilson – a long-time supporter of the industry – is the non-executive chairman of Harris Tweed Hebrides. He said: “Everyone involved in the day-to-day operation of the company is steeped in the industry. We have a superb local team and there is huge enthusiasm for what Harris Tweed Hebrides can achieve, both for the industry and for the Western Isles economy”.
He said that, while the acquisition and initial capital of the company have been fully funded by Mr Taylor, an opportunity will be created for local people to invest in it. There will also be a profit-sharing scheme. Mr Wilson said: “These two features are completely new to Harris Tweed and will help to strengthen the company’s roots in the community. The message is that we are all in this together and that the potential is enormous”.
The other non-executive directors of the new company are Ian Taylor and Alasdair Morrison, the former MSP for the Western Isles, who lives in Lewis. The company will adopt from the outset a bilingual business policy; its Gaelic name is Clo Mor Innse Gall.
Among those to welcome its formation are the 30 plus small businesses in the Western Isles which depend on Harris Tweed for the production of items such as handbags, waist-coats and ladies clothing. Mr Morrison said that there had been concerns among these producers that they would be unable to access Harris Tweed in future and that there would be an early meeting with them in order to establish their requirements and how the Shawbost mill could best meet them.
Among the first to welcome the news were Donald John and Maureen MacKay of the Luskentyre Harris Tweed Company whose customers include the sportswear firm, Nike. Mr MacKay said: “We are delighted with this news and are inspired by the competence and commitment of the experienced people now running the Shawbost mill. We are confident that both the Shawbost mill and the Harris Tweed industry have an exceptionally bright future given the calibre of the team in the new company, Harris Tweed Hebrides”.
Callum MacLean from Ness in Lewis, who has been a weaver for 30 years, said: “This is great news for weavers. We should now have a prosperous and sustainable future. I am delighted that those running the new company, Harris Tweed Hebrides, have ambitions to take this industry to a higher level and satisfy global demand for Harris Tweed”.
Originally Posted by Jock Scot
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