Another Scottish Weaver goes bust?

[Jack Daw]

X Marks should band together and buy it.

Keep all the same employees working and hire Figheadair to supervise.

We could then make the kilt fabrics we all really want.

Except in the real world, you're still dealing with the same problem of generating enough revenue to cover expenses.

[Steve Ashton]

Oh there you go, raining on my parade.

I didn't want to mention that part. If people who know weaving, the supply chain and the marketing of fabrics can't keep a business going then what chance does a bunch of kilt wearers have?

Kilt fabrics would be a very, very small part of this companies' business. To make a go of an operation that has 38 employees they would have to have paid orders for thousands of yards of fabric. Enough orders to keep the looms weaving almost 24 hours a day.

Even if every kilt wearer in the world would order another kilt it would not make a dent in the requirements of a company like this. Even if they set one loom aside just for kilt fabric I bet they could not keep it full for a month.

Every weaver company I have visited, with one sole exception, has the vast majority of their business weaving something other than kilt fabrics. And that is where the problem lies.
To compete in the fashion garment fabric industry, or the upholstery fabric industry, or the uniform fabric industry, or the industrial fabric industry, or any other type of fabric, you are competing with the off-shore weavers who can weave hundreds of thousands of yards per day and have labor and business operating costs that are a fraction of those in the Western world.

Has anyone else every researched what other fabrics cost? 500 yards of "Dockers" like Poly/Cotton fabric woven in Pakistan cost just about the same as 5 yards of 16oz kilt wool. Three years ago I was quoted a price for Acrylic Tartan at $.13 per yard by one of the weavers who supply the Pakistani kilt makers. It's no wonder they can sell a kilt for $12.00.

Just the electric bill alone in the West would prevent anyone from being competitive in that market. And don't even get me started on insurance and OSHA requirements.

[freddie]

Sad news indeed. My Mother, Grandmother and Aunts all worked in this mill over years. I have one kilt in regimental Mackenzie which I assume is Robert Noble cloth. It's a little coarser than other mills but a fantastic kilt all the same. (Of course that doesn't mean that the cloth they produce for the civilian market is coarse).

[OC Richard]

Sobering numbers there, Steve.

Time was when the military alone could keep weavers in business.

A quick rough count gives over 90 kilted British battalions and about 20 kilted CEF battalions in WWI. Just to initially equip these would take about 880,000 yards of tartan.