Textile firms seeking cash to return to Leicester

[davieG]

Merc

Textile firms are looking to repatriate their manufacturing from India and China to Leicester in a move that could create hundreds of jobs.

Six companies which moved their production from the city in the 1990s to cut costs have applied for Government grants to help them move back, reversing a trend stretching back decades.

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  Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP) head Mandip Rai
  

The businesses are hoping to secure grants of up to £150,000 from an £8 million Regional Growth Fund being administered by Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership (LLEP).

LLEP head Mandip Rai said: "These six companies had their production in Leicester in the 1990s but then moved abroad because it was cheaper to produce there.

"They are now interested in coming back because of the rising costs of wages in those countries and the growing cost of flying goods across the world.

"Comparatively, China and India are not as cheap as they were 20 years ago. We are seeing a huge wave of repatriation for that particular sector."

Mr Rai said there was also a growing kudos associated with a "Made in Britain" label and manufacturers were being attracted by the reputation of the city for fashion and clothing design associated with De Montfort University.

He said: "We are talking about a huge volume of jobs. One of the companies has said it would create 100 jobs.

"The skills of the workforce needed are still in the city."

Mr Rai said he could not reveal the names of the firms looking to relocate until after the bids for cash had been assessed. That is due to happen at the end of March.

He said any company succeeding would have to match the funding and would use the cash for capital costs such as building extensions or buying up-to-date machinery.

Leicester Asian Business Association president Jaspal Singh Minhas said: "Leicester became a very rich city thanks to the textile trade, but there was a point where it was simply cheaper to take their manufacturing to India or China.

"Now, the cost of air freight is going up and companies are having to meet that because they cannot pass it on to retailers. Retailers don't want to wait four or five weeks for their products to arrive from the other side of the world

"Wages are also going up in India and China, so it is not that much more expensive to produce here.

"Textile manufacturing has never entirely left the city and there are lots of small companies making clothes here, but it is encouraging ones that left really want to come back.

"We will never see the big old factories that employed thousands, but there will be operations with 40, 60 or 100 staff."

[Babylon]

So basically, we fecked off to make more money and didn't give a shit about Leicester.

Now we aren't making the money we used to we'd like to come back, but it would be lovely if you actually paid us to do so.

[indierich06]

So basically, we fecked off to make more money and didn't give a shit about Leicester.

Now we aren't making the money we used to we'd like to come back, but it would be lovely if you actually paid us to do so.

True, there's nothing altruistic about this at all, but if it restarted the textile industry in Leicester and created a large amount of jobs, then it would be fantastic for the city and certainly worth a few hundred thousand pounds in grants.

[Finnegan]

So basically, we fecked off to make more money and didn't give a shit about Leicester.

Now we aren't making the money we used to we'd like to come back, but it would be lovely if you actually paid us to do so.

Yes.

But at the end of the day, regardless of their motivations it's still good for the city.

[Babylon]

But at the end of the day, regardless of their motivations it's still good for the city.

Could be, I just hope the deals are gone through with a fine tooth comb and they have very good contracts. I can't help but be skeptical about these things when grants are involved. Ripe for exploitation.

[MooseBreath]

Manufacturing will come back eventually. Real wages have and are falling, our currency has weakened, which is crap for pretty much everyone living here but it does improve our export potential. We have all the infrastructure in place unlike the remaining very cheap places such as Africa. I'm surprised people are looking at coming back already though. I thought it would be another 5-10 years. On the one hand it's great that we could have some great industry back, on the other it's a pretty damning assessment of our economy that we're already considered a cheaper option than the likes of China and India.

[ADK]

Not really too pleased to be honest, just shows what a shithole the country is when we are a cheaper option than the third world.

[rico]

I work in this industry and we have never been as busy as we have in the last 6 months,as for the above poster not being happy,fooking do one !

[lavrentis]

Good for the city, just wondering does the city still have quite a big textiles industry? I notice that on Western Road there is a factory there but was just wondering out of curiosity

[Thracian]

The same has been happening in the ceramics industry with Portmeirion - the most profitable British company in the field - which has bought famous names like Spode and Royal Worcester and traded very strongly on the Britishness of its products while companies who've taken production abroad have rapidly weakened or died completely .

People can be fickle in all sorts of ways, whether it is where their relationships are concerned, their loyalty to an employer, their abandonment of local corner shops support in favour of cheaper supermarkets or whatever.

However, the reality is that many people have an inner need make their own choices and to spread their wings, for better or worse, with the owners of companies being no different.

It may be that some companies would have folded completely but for the managers having the courage to re-locate abroad. It may be they believed that moving abroad was the best way to grow the company, to compete with competitors and/or to gain valuable new knowledge, experience and contacts.

And what if these companies did make mistakes or did move abroad disloyally? Who's to judge the rights and wrongs of that?

I'd welcome anyone willing to provide real jobs in the manufacturing sector here and would urge the Government to follow suit as well as taking initiatives of their own.

If there's one thing desperately needed in this country right now it is many more productive work opportunities for ordinary people who don't necessarily carry an armful of paper qualifications yet have lots to contribute in more practical terms.

Such businesses would also create opportunities for the thousands of graduates who are finding it so hard to get appropriate work when their college days are over.

I agree with others in believing there is a future in manufacturing here and, indeed, the huge and fast-growing population in this land - fast closing in on 70 million - represents massive potential buying power.

We live in a capitalist system but that system will only sustain itself, not by making a virtue of the words "cheap" and "frugal", but by making things and providing services that people are happy to pay for and by giving them the education and the means to afford them.

Soon perhaps we will set about building and sailing cruise liners again - what a boost that would be for other manufacturers - and perhaps even monorail systems for all our major cities and providing electric points everywhere for much cleaner cars.

Trades union intransigence didn't help in the demise of the shipyards, or elsewhere sometimes, but the reality is that it's not how much people get paid that counts but how much their money buys and how long the work can be sustained.

Characterless High Street shops might be closing but, with the money saved on travelling/car parking/ etc, that should leave more funds free for online purchases, providing people have the means to pay for them, and the opportunity then for towns to become more individual again and therefore more attractive to visitors...something that even Sir Peter Soulsby seems to recognise as desirable given his vision of seriously improving the city's tourist attractions.

And the way to pay for all those things is through jobs and through contracting the eternally wasteful benefits system - and all other non-productive waste while we're at it - and focusing our charity only on people who genuinely need help in looking after themselves or who have temporarily hit hard times.

Ironically too the only way the Health system and the Benefits System costs can be sustained is by creating genuinely productive work, unless people advocate continuing down the path of increasingly spending what we don't have until the country is bankrupt, the currency becomes worthless and people can afford to buy nothing.

[Thracian]

Could be, I just hope the deals are gone through with a fine tooth comb and they have very good contracts. I can't help but be skeptical about these things when grants are involved. Ripe for exploitation.

Entirely agree about the contracts.

[indierich06]

Not really too pleased to be honest, just shows what a shithole the country is when we are a cheaper option than the third world.

How's that then? All that's happening is that it's not as easy to exploit workers in places like China and India anymore - they're having to pay decent wages on top of exporting the stuff too. Back when they were paying a pittance to the workers, they could afford to export the stuff all over the world, now that they're not it makes far more sense to produce it here and cut out the export costs.

Hardly means this country is a 'shithole' - it just means the rest of the world is catching up.I wouldn't say China or India are third world countries by any stretch of the imagination either, a lot of people live in shit conditions, but those countries are booming economically.

[Thracian]

How's that then? All that's happening is that it's not as easy to exploit workers in places like China and India anymore - they're having to pay decent wages on top of exporting the stuff too. Back when they were paying a pittance to the workers, they could afford to export the stuff all over the world, now that they're not it makes far more sense to produce it here and cut out the export costs.

Hardly means this country is a 'shithole' - it just means the rest of the world is catching up.I wouldn't say China or India are third world countries by any stretch of the imagination either, a lot of people live in shit conditions, but those countries are booming economically.

[Deucalion]

The best solution for all concerned is to offer the manufacturers huge grants to return, let them bring their expertise and the means of production and get everything set up for many new jobs in Leicester.

Then, the council should arrest the owners, give them compulsory jobs down coal mines, and let the workers run the factories.

As I said...best for everyone.