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THE TIMES
Cutting dated NOV 1971 19
Peter Hill looks at the man who will lead the fight to prevent the demise
of the cotton industry
Lancashire orenares to fight for its textile future
Over the next few months the textile brons of Lancashire-with the active and unprecedented sup- port of the industry's trade unions-will mount a verbal battle to avert what they see as the threatened demise of their industry.
Lancashire has been brought to its knees before, subject as it is to the vagaries of fashion and world trading patterns, and for decades has been in a state of almost continual decline. The number of firms, mills and jobs have shrunk dramatically. The fear now is that unloss the decline is arrested by positive government action, the industry will disappear completely in five years time and with it the livelihoods of 250,000 workers who depend directly or indirectly on it.
Two weeks ago the Textile Industry Support Campaign (TISC) was launched, somewhat belatedly perhaps, by the Oldham Textile Employers' Association. It followed a meeting of the Asso- ciation's committee some weeks earlier when the local textile mag- nates devided that something must be done, and quickly, to present Lancashire's case to the Govern ment and to the country.
In fact the Association is one of the few remaining textile employ- ers' associations with sufficient funds to support such a campaign and is underwriting the cost of the venture for which £30.000 has been budgeted in the first year. The primary objective of the cam- paign is to press the Government to maintain quota regulations on cotton textile imports rather than adopt tariffs at the end of the year.
Of course, cotton fabrics are only part of the total output of cloth woven in Lancashire. Last year 879,000 sq yds of cotton cloth were produced, while man- made and mixture fabrics accounted for as much as 725,000 sq yds. The Textile Council has predicted that by 1975 manmade fibres will account for 65 per cent of total consumption. The inte- grated groups such as ICI and Courtaulds, which now control large parts of the industry, and
are heavily committed to synthetic fibre production-with its inbuilt cost advantages-are raturally not so vociferous on this issue.
But for the scores of small firms still dependent on production of cotton fabrics by traditional meth- ods, the transition to tariffs seems to present a very real threat.
The tariff levels which have been adopted of 6.5 per cent on yarn, 15 per cent on Cloth and 17 per cent on made up goods, it is argued, will be totally ineffective in stemming the flow of imports from Commonwealth and develop- ing countries. These are currently running at levels of 39 per cent higher than a year ago.
At the centre of the campaign, as it gathers momentum, is Mr Edmund Gartside, the 37-year-old, third generation head of Shiloh Spinners, one of the smaller inde pendent companies in the industry which has so far been able to survive. It is not the first time that he has caught the public eye. He achieved a degree of notoriety in 1969 when the Textile Council published its productivity and effi- ciency study-at а cost of £100,000-which laid down the strategy designed to ensure the future health of the industry.
Mr Gartside disagreed with many of the findings, and pub- lished a lengthy note of dissent. He felt that the report failed to take sufficient account of the contribution of small firms both then, and in the future, and in particular considered that the re- port's strategic plan was inadequ- ate, since it did not tackle what he saw as the fundamental problem-- imports. With a degree in econo- mics behind him, and a lifetime's involvement in the Lancashire tex- tile industry-he recalls how he used to visit his grandfather at the mill from an early age he stands firmly by the views he held two years ago.
Quietly spoken-even a little reserved-he is far from the archetypal, bluff, gruff, redfaced millowner. He is perhaps the ideal candidate to tread the corridors of power in Whitehall, and it is there, to a large extent, that the campaign will be fought.
It is only in the past two weeks that Mr Gertside his taken on the job of masterminding the cam paign. His predecessor as presi- dent of the Oldham Association had to retire because his mill was forced to close--and Mr Gartside does not intend the same fate to befall him.
on
Paradoxically the issue which the TISC is based (the switch from quotas to tariffs on import) .s one of the few recom- mendations of the 1969 report which has been carried although it should be said that the report advocated a longer transi- tional period than the one laid down by the Labour Government.
out,
Government thinking then was that given the other changes out- lined, reorganization, re-equipment and overall rationalization. the
industry should be in a strong position to compete effectively with imports from the developing countries.
Mr Gartside is emphatic: "I think the report should be buried. It is a complete nonsense and was merely There was a very predominant
a theoretical exercise.
Board of Trade influence. In my view-shared by many others-it seems that the Government does not want to see a healthy domes- tic textile industry. Policy towards the, industry has been, and is being carried out by civil servants, and Ministers have very little to do with it."
What irks him particularly is that the Goverment seems loath
to to implement any measures alleviate disruption of its activities from imports, yet is quick to respond to pleas for anti-dumping duties to be imposed in respect of disruption of other smaller, and he argues, less important indus- tries. This is the result, perhaps. of Lancashire crying wolf too often in the past. Mr Gartside, not unnaturally disagrees.
"The industry is very adapta- ble. I think that management generally is tough, but flexible and responsive to the need for change. But there seems to be little sense in investing in new plant and facilities if imports are
simply going to continue to flood into the country ", he says.
Examples of import distortion are legion, according to Mr Gart- side. Yarn from one firm in Pakistan for delivery in the United Kingdom next spring, landed here and inclusive of duty, is being quoted at prices 35 per cent below its home produced equivalent at 21.70p per lb com- pared with 29.45p per lb. His own firm recently lost a long standing customer for yarn who now found it cheaper to import cloth from the Far East, process it, and send -out for re-export, at a price far cheaper than he could purchase in this
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who country-" and blame him ? Mr Gartside asks.
"At present we are in a situa- tion where there has been an 8 per cent reduction in home demand but when this is accom-
panied by a 39 per cent increase in imports the result is culas. trophic."
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who can then use them to import and other items.
All this is working against the United competitiveness of the Kingdom industry, the TISC argu-
ment goes, and a combination of ineffective tariffs on cotton textile imports, and the relaxation of regulations concerning marks of origin, spells disaster.
"So far this year we have had 58 mill closures-averaging six each month. In one year 13,000 workers have been made redun- dant and we calculate this year there will be about 100 mill closures involving total redundan- cies of around 17,000 people says Mr Gartside grirnly.
In the past 10 years 564 mills have closed down and SONIC 107,000 jobs have disappeared. Previously workers have been able to find alternative employment but with the queues outside the employment exchanges growing every day, this no longer is the
case.
some of the Additionally, in developing countries export incen- tive schemes operate, and Pakistan is a key example according to Mr Gartside. There, he says, a voucher system operates whereby the ex- porter receives about 60 per cent of the value of
order in in the balance currency and vouchers which he can then sell often at three times the face value-to Pakistani importers, poraries.
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Without the support of at least some of the big groups-and Mr Gartside is guardedly optimistic- to lend a hand, the campaign might lack effective staying power although there appears to be ample enthusiasm and determina- tion among their smaller contem-
-SNOV 1971
REGISTRY No.51
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