|
|
Willie McCarter reflects on Loom
years
15.10.09
by Liam Porter, Inishowen Independent
WHILE admitting he’s sad Fruit of the Loom is no
longer in operation in Buncrana, former Fruit of the
Loom Managing Director, Willie McCarter, concedes
that the company’s lifespan in Ireland was always
one that would, at some stage, come to an end.
“In my view Fruit of the Loom put a tremendous
injection into this area, I’m very sorry that it’s
not here now, but I realised at the time that this
was something that had a finite life to it.”
Mr McCarter says he had hoped, when the investment
came initially from Fruit of the Loom, that there
would follow a twenty or twenty-five year run,
adding that it very nearly was achieved.
He also outlined why, when all things are
considered, that this was a pretty remarkable
achievement.
“Before the Fruit of the Loom investment we had 470
people working in 1985 here in Buncrana and at Malin
Head, but in the 1980s there was a severe recession,
there were severe public finances problems,
inflation was huge, unemployment was huge,
emigration was huge and our family company faced
very difficult times.” |
With nobody banging
down the door to provide investment, McCarter’s with
backing from the IDA, headed off to America in
search of a joint venture partner that was a lot
larger, had a lot deeper pockets.
One of the companies courted was a firm called Union
Underwear, owner of the Fruit of the Loom brand name
and later to become Fruit of the Loom.
“It was very early on when we |
 |
met Fruit of the Loom,
they came here I always remember it on July 12th
1986. They were whisked around by the IDA and we
hijacked the trip and through some local people we
had them stay overnight in Fahan. We showed them
around the area – don’t forget in those days things
were hot and heavy just ten miles up the road. It
wasn’t the most natural place here in Donegal to
find a US multi-national coming to set down roots,
but once we got our hands on these people – they
were excellent people from Kentucky – we got them
here and gave them the idea that this was a place
steeped in this tradition, with people who knew a
lot about the business – I mean everyone who worked
in it – this was a place where they could do
business.”
It might have been risky, but considering the
alternatives facing the McCarter’s family firm, it
was a risk worth taking – and one that paid off.
In August of that year another meeting had taken
place and in November a third meeting at which a
deal had been struck.
“That deal closed on February 12th 1987 and it
resulted in Fruit of the Loom investing $200 million
here initially in Donegal and then in a cross-border
bases with the spinning mill and sewing plant at
Templemore.”
This was a massive investment, but Willie McCarter
explains the American Company had spotted the
potential here.
“Part of the reason why Fruit of the Loom was so
interested in coming here, because we did everything
in a very similar way except spinning. We didn’t
spin but we knit on circular machines from 1932, we
started bleaching and for a long period of time we
were bleaching and dyeing, we were cutting, sewing
into garments, finishing those garments, putting
into boxes, putting into a warehouse and then
dispatching.”
And the McCarter’s factory wasn’t producing just any
old garments either. The work produced in the
Buncrana factory was much sought-after.
“We produced high quality garments, we sold to
Dunnes Stores, to Primark and to the now famous
company Arthur Ryan. We sold to Levis, Lee and
Adidas, - we produced 12 million 3-stripe tee shirts
for Adidas here in Buncrana. We also developed the
first polyester-cotton fleece - everybody uses it
now but we developed the first.”
The injection of investment from Fruit of the Loom
transformed the operation in Buncrana.
“It was a huge investment of $200 million and it was
coming here to local people building this from the
base we had in McCarter’s. We had no resident
Americans except for the spinning mill, the only
part of the technology we didn’t have experience in,
but in fact in the spinning end of things we had
charge of creating the spinning mill ourselves.”
It’s easy to sense the pride that remains with
Willie McCarter for the fact that this employment
phenomenon was built locally by local people.
“It was local people all the time. People who worked
in the company got promoted to supervisors, to
managers, to quality control supervisors, there was
a lot of job creation, a lot of jobs filled by local
people. Everybody had great faith in each other and
when you get a band of people like that, a great
bond like that, it that enables you to grow 470 jobs
into nearly 3,000.”
As they expanded, Fruit of the Loom spread its wings
across the north west, expanding at Malin Head
first, then in Raphoe and Milford, then to Derry at
Templemore and Campsie and started work in Dungloe
and in Morocco.
“We had the largest vertical complex in the world of
its type where we brought in cotton in the bale and
polyester on the bale and we spun all our own yarn,
knitted all our own fabric, bleached, dyed, cut,
sewed, finished and dispatched 1,000,000 tee shirts
a week and 400,000 sweatshirts a week all over
Europe.”
But it couldn’t last forever and by 1999 jobs were
being lost as Fruit of the Loom began to re-locate
its entire operations to Morocco.
“The idea of globalization is not a new phenomenon,
this has happened over the centuries. In the US the
textiles industry used to be all clustered up around
New England, New York, Connecticut, Boston, Rhode
Island, it was the heart of the textiles industry,
but after the second-world war the textiles industry
in New England just disappeared and moved to the
south where the labour was cheaper. That’s just one
example, but this phenomenon of industry or economic
activity going to areas where it is more efficient –
that’s not a new thing.”
According to Willie McCarter, what was new and what
caught certainly them by surprise and indeed some of
their senior colleagues in the USA, was the World
Trade Agreement in the early 1990s that opened up
the textiles and clothing trade worldwide a lot
quicker than any of them realised it would happen.
“What happened Fruit of the Loom here and indeed
most of the textile and clothing industry in Western
Europe was that with this opening up, the industry
went to areas like China, India, Eastern Europe and
North Africa. We knew at some stage that this
industry would go, at least in part, but it would
go. We were hoping that at the very least we’d get a
twenty year run out of it and indeed we nearly got a
twenty year run out of it. Considering how difficult
conditions were for people in this area in the
mid-eighties, we succeeded in getting pretty nearly
a twenty year extension of life.”
He admits to being irked at times when he hears
people talk of ‘the Fruit of the Loom experience’ in
the north-west as if it were a bad thing, as if the
job-losses at the end were the only thing ever to
have come from the fact that this huge company had
been based here.
“It’s only when I look back on it now I realise, we
were really up against it in the mid eighties,
everybody was. But because of what we did, going to
America, getting hold of Fruit of the Loom and
getting them to trust us that they could have a very
good base here with local people, we transformed
what we had and using $200 million turned it to
something that was churning out 1,000,000 a week and
400,000 sweatshirts, getting a 30% share of the
European market. That was no mean achievement for a
company in North Donegal.”
And he says, the injection of capital that Fruit of
the Loom employment brought in these lean times was
vital for local economies across the north-west.
“Sometimes Fruit of the Loom was criticised for
taking people out of education. If people came to us
and wanted a job we didn’t turn them down, we needed
people to come and work, but at the same time we
encouraged and subsidised people to go and train and
we directly trained a lot of people.”
Looking back now he insists he can honestly can say
that that Fruit of the Loom gave a lot of people
tremendous opportunities.
“We provided and organised a lot of training, both
outside and inside. A lot of people went to college,
a lot of people went on for technical qualifications
but most importantly it gave people confidence that
they could do things, they could better themselves,
they could learn and they could advance. A lot of
people, when they left Fruit of the Loom went and
set up their own businesses.”
That, says Mr McCarter is evidence of the resilience
and determination of local people and he remains
hugely optimistic for Inishowen and the north-west
in general.
“The sort of operations that we brought in with
Fruit of the Loom, that won’t happen any more,
unless the world turns upside down, but you can get
new things, just like they got new things in New
England after the war, loads of new things,” he
concluded. |
|
