From producing garments that were seen as essential wear on the golf course in the 70s and 80s, Pringle of Scotland has undergone a radical makeover to appeal to a younger, slicker audience and win the praise of celebrities such as Madonna, Ewan McGregor, Sharon Stone, and Scarlett Johannson.
But while the catwalk fashionistas may have approved of this reinvention, its economic consequences have been far less encouraging.
Despite investing more than £45m since buying the company in 2000, the Fang family who now own it, saw losses of £9m last year.
Industry insiders said the closure of Pringle's manufacturing operation, which was proposed yesterday following the preliminary results of a major review of its Hawick factory, was inevitable, given this hemorrhaging of cash.
It would mean the loss of one of Scotland's oldest knitwear labels, which dates back to 1815.
One consequence of Pringle's catalogue shake-up is that it has much more fine-knit garments and less of the medium and heavy knitwear produced in its Hawick factory.
While other manufacturers in the Borders have gradually shifted production to make more fine-knit designs, Pringles has outsourced this work, along with most of its garment manufacturing, with the result that a very small proportion of its production takes place in Hawick.
"The demand has shifted towards fine-knit and that just isn't made in our Hawick factory," a company source said. "The competition for this is not coming from the far east but from Italy, where manufacturing costs are much lower."
He said that, whatever option was decided, the company would retain the name Pringle of Scotland, as it hoped to outsource some of its manufacturing work to other companies in the Borders.
But industry insiders attacked the notion that other textile firms could soak up much more extra work, given that they were struggling with skills shortages and that orders could take two to three years to place. "It's not like turning on a tap - knitwear is a far more complex product," one company boss said.
John Lamont, the MSP for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, was critical of the notion that you could have a Scottish brand name on a garment with a "made in Italy" tag: "It's an issue I'm going to be raising with minister and management once final decisions have been taken," he said.
"The proposals would effectively mean keeping on an outpost in the Borders for the sake of having their brand name in Scotland, when in reality, 99% of the garments would be produced outside Scotland. Is that something the Scottish Government is happy to be doing?"
The closure threat to Pringle, one of the oldest knitwear companies in the region, is the latest to hit the Borders textiles industry. In January this year, the world famous clothing firm J Barbour and Sons closed its factory at Tweedbank near Galashiels, with the loss of 46 jobs.
