Luxury Ayr weaver to cut jobs over demand slump
- Published
Theresa May visited Alex Begg in Ayr in 2018 as part of her promise to keep the country "strong and united" a year before Brexit
A luxury Scottish weaver who worked with Vivienne Westwood is expected to cut jobs in Ayr.
Owners of Alex Begg & Co confirmed redundancies which would affect up to 15 people - which is 10% of its workforce.
The 153-year-old company has begun a consultation with staff and representatives.
It comes days after the collapse of Watt Brothers, which operated a store on the town's High Street.
Chief executive Ian Laird said the decision was made to cut roles following a "softening" in demand and "uncertainty" over Brexit.
He said: "Over recent years we have grown the business considerably through our focus on creativity, new product development and giving great service to customers.
"We had expected this growth to continue in line with our recent history and yet the uncertainty around Brexit and other global trade has seen a slowdown in overall demand.
"The impact for our business is that we have less activity than we expected for this year and the outlook into next year shows little prospect of return to significant growth."
He said this meant that the firm's cost base was too high for its anticipated volume of output.
'Choices need to be made'
Mr Laird said the demand issues related to the company's bespoke/private label business.
He added: "We regret being in the position where such choices need to be made, but we believe that the business has a good long-term future and it is therefore important that we take the right decisions protecting the shorter term.
"We will continue to invest in developing new products to drive the return to profitable growth of the business."
The company was founded by Alex Begg in 1866 in Paisley and developed signature shawls inspired by Scotland's textural landscape, lochs and seas.
Products were hand-loomed by a small team of local weavers before Mr Begg expanded to Ayr and invested in machinery and new weaving techniques.
The company now manufactures for many couture houses and designers, and has worked with Vivienne Westwood for years on catwalk pieces.
It recently started working with Mulberry on a scarf collection.