Run Down of Textiles Industry Accelerating
Robin Newton said
“The recent good news announcement by Portadown based Ulster Carpet Mills regarding additional jobs and increasing financial investment stands in stark contrast to the fortunes of the many other firms that comprised this one time vibrant industry.
Within a period of only 10 years, from 1997 until 2007, this once dominant manufacturing sector has shed 20,500 jobs. With current employment levels of 3000 employees (these being 1997 figures) the decline of the sector has been accelerating as the decade rolled out.
Much of the advice from today’s business gurus is for companies to move to higher value added products. The sector’s current skills gaps and the lack of technical knowledge make this nearly impossible to achieve.
As experienced employee numbers declined the skills and technical knowledge base has been greatly weakened. With virtually no training and educational provision available to support companies wishing to up-skill their people or expand technical knowledge it is difficult to see significant improvement in the fortunes of the now small number of existing firms.
However, the remaining companies are rural based and though employment numbers are now small they remain significant to a local economy. For this reason they need continued support and specialist advice from Invest Northern Ireland rather than slipping into the mind set of the sector being a sunset industry of little value to the overall NI economy.”
