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.