Closure threatens jobs in Derry bedware plant

Nearly 200 jobs are set to go at a soft furnishings factory in Derry in the latest manufacturing blow to the North, it was confirmed today.

CV Furnishings, part of Coates plc. will close within three months with the loss of 180 jobs unless a buyer can be found.

Closure with the loss of all jobs was “a real possibility” said a spokesman.

A 90-day consultation period with the trade unions was begun today after the management called the workforce together to announce the news.

The factory is involved in the manufacture of bedware sold under the Dorma brand.

The company said the current situation had arisen “due to pressure from its own label customers to reduce its price in order to retain significant volumes of bedding business”.

As with other sections of the textile industry, cheap foreign imports were causing the problems.

The company said: “It has not been possible to effectively compete against lower cost imports from a UK manufacturing cost base.”

During 2002 there was a £9m decline in sales which had meant that for parts of the year it had not been able to effectively fill its factories to capacity.

“To recapture some of the business that has been lost and retain current business it has to source more product from overseas,” the firm said.

It is the latest in a series of jobs blows to hit the north west of Northern Ireland in recent weeks.

Last week Desmonds, which manufactures for Marks and Spencer, said it was cutting more than 300 jobs and closing two factories because it needed to move work overseas.

Earlier this week the Saville Row shirt makers who manufacture for Thomas Pink said they were cutting 65 people from their workforce at Castledawson, County Derry.

Another company in County Armagh also faces closure with the loss of some 70 jobs because of a decision by Thomas Pink to place orders abroad.

Alan Elliott of the GMB trade union said the latest announcement had “come out of the blue” and added: “It has been a bad couple of weeks for the Derry area.

“There is a feeling of despondency because we believe this is the death-knell for textiles in the north west, which is already an area of high unemployment.”

The latest announcement, on top of those in recent weeks, meant the the prospects that any of the workers being made redundant would get another job in the clothing or textile industry was “virtually non existent”.

The Government needed to help, he said.

He was not looking for hand outs but help in re-tooling and re-training in companies to allow them to compete better with imports.

Public procurement by the Government should also be more focused on home industry.

“CV makes bedding – think of the bedding required by the NHS,” he said.