Douglas Crawford on a bouyant Scots firm that has become one of
Europe's leading PVC specialists
LOTHIAN Coated Fabrics is a Prestonpans company which was created out
of a management buy-out in 1982 and which, from its reincarnation that
year, has seen annual turnover grow rapidly during the period from
#800,000 to #6m, with a further rise projected for the present financial
year to #6m-plus.
It has now become one of Europe's leading specialists in PVC and in
polymer-coated fabrics -- which in turn has led to its receiving the
Queen's Award for Export Achievement.
The history of the company is interesting: Daniel Buchanan and Son was
an oilskin manufacturer based on the shore at Prestonpans -- until, in
the 1930s, it moved to the present Lothian Coated Fabrics' site.
It was one of the first PVC manufacturers of its day but, after
falling into difficulties in the 1960s, it was sold to Don Bros Buist.
Some 20 years later the MBO took place, with three weeks spent on
negotiatons and another month to get the funding package put together.
Each of the (then) three erstwhile managers invested 25% in the
equity, with the then SDA providing the remaining 25%, together with a
loan. Two years later, the SDA funding was bought back under a
pre-arranged formula.
Company director (and one of the original three managers) Gus
Williamson says that towards the end of the 1980s it was decided to
attempt to expand Lothian Coated Fabrics' operations by venturing into
the export market. Previously, the company's exporting was limited but,
as Mr Williamson observes, ''we had done enough to know that the
potential for increasing our exports was there''. A representative was
therefore appointed to work out of Lyons.
At about the same time it was announced that the factory of Watsons of
Newburgh in Fife (Watsons was part of the Courtaulds group) was to be
closed. Lothian Coated Fabrics, however, moved in, purchased the factory
and took over what was to all intents and purposes a competitor company.
Both worked in PVC and in polyurethane coatings. It was therefore
decided to concentrate the PVC work at Prestonpans and the polyurethane
work at Newburgh.
The years of 1990 and 1991 were good financially, but by 1992 the
recession had begun to bite and ''that and a number of other factors led
us to conclude that the future direction of the company would be best
served by our being based all on a single site''.
This would make for greater efficiency because of economies of scale
and of better use of management time. Simultaneously, the building at
Newburgh was in a poor repair. An additional point was that the
requirement of current environmental legislation insisted that emission
abatement systems would have to be installed there. It was decided that
this would be prohibitively expensive and so the decision was taken to
centre all production and management in Prestonpans.
Since then it has been all go, with employment rising to some 70
people. Many of the company's products currently being made are designed
to meet military specifications for final applications such as
protective clothing, rucksacks, tenting, and camouflage garnishing --
these being especially useful in foul weather.
The development of new and specialised coatings is an important part
of this department's work, current examples being breathable coatings,
visual camouflage, and infra-red, thermal, and radar-deceiving finishes.
PVC coated polyamide or polyester fabrics at the heavier end of the
range are generally used for protection covers. Other markets for the
company's products are sports and leisure activity (for example,
swimming pool liners, boat covers, tennis net bands, sports bags,
inflatable boats, caravan awnings, tent mudflaps and roofs and walls and
lining, and groundsheets). The company in addition manufactures coated
fabrics for use in special products.
Some 30% of Lothian Coated Fabrics' production is exported to a wide
range of countries including, France, Ireland, Holland, Spain, Germany,
Norway, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Canada, Israel, the Czeck Republic,
Tunisia, and the UAE. Finished goods have direct access to the
immediately accessible European motorway network and also to the Port of
Leith.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article