Investment in UK textile manufacturing could create 20,000 jobs by 2020

By

Cajsa Lykke Carlson

Published
Feb 10, 2015

The Alliance Project, a not-for-profit organisation established to examine the potential for repatriating textiles manufacturing to the UK, has just released a new report.

The report "Repatriation of UK Textiles Manufacture," is the biggest study in twenty years on supply and demand in UK textile manufacturing. It found that the UK textile industry is worth £9bn to the economy and is seeing year-on-year export and domestic growth.

Last year alone, 5,000 new jobs were created in the UK textile industry and investment could create another 15,000. This would mean an increase of 20,000 by 2020. UK production is more attractive than before, as consumer behaviour has lead to shorter lead times, and there is also a bigger demand for UK-made homeware.

UK sourcing is also more attractive due to increasing costs from competing countries. The repatriation of textile manufacturing to the UK is supported by retailers including N Brown, which has launched the first ever textile grant growth programme, M&S, Asos, Roland Mouret, and others.

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Paul Short, Chair of the N Brown Group bid, said: "The National N Brown Textile Growth Programme has only been operational for 12 months in the North of the UK and has already created over 1,600 jobs. We want to thank the Government and all our partners for supporting us in our bid to drive investment in the textile supply chain in Britain. Our joint efforts clearly demonstrate that retailers, by working together with local and national government, can have a real economic impact."