Clothing industry groups have come together to form the Irish Clothing and Textile Alliance in a move to revitalise the flagging industry. Under its umbrella, the alliance hopes to protect the three, until now separate, representative bodies in the sector from the storms which many feel have decimated the sector over the past 10 to 15 years.
The alliance brings together the Irish Clothing Manufacturers' Federation, the Irish Textile Manufacturers' Federation and the Association of Woollen and Worsted Manufacturers of Ireland.
Its central message, says Ms Susan Keane, director of the clothing and textile sector in IBEC, is that defeatism is the wrong approach, that the Irish textile industry is vital in many aspects and that its future could be as healthy as the bouncing baby information technology industry if its three sectors worked together to address their future with energy.
The inspiration behind the new alliance is the experience of the Danish clothing industry.
A fact-finding mission to Denmark last year looked at an industry which had been of similar size to our own. Despite significant out-sourcing of manufacturing to Eastern bloc countries over the past 10 years, the numbers employed in the Danish clothing industry have remained constant.
It is a story which contrasts with our own, where closure after closure in clothing and textiles seem to spell nothing but doom. Ms Keane points out, however, that the industry employs some 18,000 people and provides 10 per cent of all manufacturing jobs in the State. Significant outsourcing, to the Far East and North Africa, is a painful fact of life, she continues. Job losses in mass clothes manufacturing are inevitable and businesses that hope to continue in that vein here will face impossible labour cost competition abroad. Irish manufacturers, she says, must realise the need to develop brand and design and to utilise the latest technologies.
"They need to get organised, to talk to each other more, keep up to date with marketing methods such as the Internet, shopping channels . . . There is merit in getting the good stories out about the industry," she adds, "and showing that we are not a sector just sitting back and waiting to die."
She points to such success stories as Botany Weavers, based in the Liberties area of Dublin. Founded in 1934, it wove fabrics for clothing and was still using Dobby weaving technology in 1988 to make uniform fabrics. In 1988 it had a turnover of £1 million (€1.27 million). Its managing director, Mr Jonathan Hackett, says he "saw the writing on the wall" then. "We bought into the Jacquard technology, which allows you to design fabric weaves on floppy disk. You then put the disk into the loom and away you go."
The company is now one of just 16 in the world supplying upholstery fabric to airlines.
Botany Weaving's stringent compliance with requirements on flammability and weight have just won it Boeing approval and it aims to double its current annual turnover of £10 million by 2005.
Key to the success have been Mr Hackett's willingness to invest and his keen eye on international trends. It's an approach the Irish Clothing and Textile Alliance will hope to imitate.
