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Coats / Clarks Of Paisley


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Anyone interested in the history of Coats should get today's Herald , the magazine has a great story on their history. Did not realise this was once the third biggest company in the world. That the blockade by the French during Napoleonic war silk was not getting through to the uk. Thread made by cotton was invented by Scots. 

BBC2 June the 7th at 9pm there is a documentary called The Town That Thread Built. If your a bud  don't miss it.

 

Edited by Isle Of Bute Saint
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I worked for Coats Patons, the parent company of J & P Coats, from 1972 75.

I remember them sending me down to Nottingham to meet a boss I had met before and they put me up in a city centre hotel.

After breakfast I waited in the reception area to be picked up. Numerous similarly suited twenty somethings joined me and they all seemed to know each other.

A bloke came in a few steps in front of the guy who had come for me. I caught his eye and he said "Boots?", I said "No.........Coats" and walked past him and left with my boss.  

The look on the guys face was a picture as all the other suits stood up and said "Boots".  

Apart from being the home of lacemaking, Nottingham was the home of the headquarters for Boots the Chemist.   

 

https://oldestscottishcompanies.wikispaces.com/J+and+P+Coats+Ltd

http://www.coats.com/index.asp?pageid=20&time=year1800s

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On 27 May 2017 at 5:34 PM, buddiecat said:

Thatcher and Major were the prime ministers during the rundown and closure of the mills, incentives offered to move trade elsewhere combined with a lack of investment in modern facilities at the mills led to their closure i would think.

Thatcher and Major were simple tools of Capitalism....

...and, simply, Capitalism was the cause of the Mills closing.   The jobs, of the circa 8,000 workers left in the 70s, all went the same way as the other jobs lost.

Overseas to cheaper labour.

CPB exported the work to places like Venezuela and the Philippines, whereas in earlier years the jobs and factories went to countries like Portugal.

Scottish workers had organised so that terms and conditions were almost civilised and workplaces were safer but that cuts into profit, so change had to happen to protect shareholders.

An uncle of mine worked in Venezuela setting up factories: a cousin did the same for Portugal, Brasil and the Phillippines.

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8 hours ago, antrin said:

Thatcher and Major were simple tools of Capitalism....

...and, simply, Capitalism was the cause of the Mills closing.   The jobs, of the circa 8,000 workers left in the 70s, all went the same way as the other jobs lost.

Overseas to cheaper labour.

CPB exported the work to places like Venezuela and the Philippines, whereas in earlier years the jobs and factories went to countries like Portugal.

Scottish workers had organised so that terms and conditions were almost civilised and workplaces were safer but that cuts into profit, so change had to happen to protect shareholders.

An uncle of mine worked in Venezuela setting up factories: a cousin did the same for Portugal, Brasil and the Phillippines.

Uxbridge is now where head office is , with no presence in Paisley at all . .apart from a couple of old buildings they used to own. .

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In fairness, (and no doubt due to pressure from erstwhile TU folk like mah Faither...) the pensions still being paid out to ex-mill workers has always been better than average.

Dunno if the Pensions Department still operates from a Glesca base...?

Edited by antrin
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7 hours ago, antrin said:

In fairness, (and no doubt due to pressure from erstwhile TU folk like mah Faither...) the pensions still being paid out to ex-mill workers has always been better than average.

Dunno if the Pensions Department still operates from a Glesca base...?

Yeh Bluto , the pensions arm is up in West Regent strasse. .

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21 hours ago, antrin said:

Thatcher and Major were simple tools of Capitalism....

...and, simply, Capitalism was the cause of the Mills closing.   The jobs, of the circa 8,000 workers left in the 70s, all went the same way as the other jobs lost.

Overseas to cheaper labour.

CPB exported the work to places like Venezuela and the Philippines, whereas in earlier years the jobs and factories went to countries like Portugal.

Scottish workers had organised so that terms and conditions were almost civilised and workplaces were safer but that cuts into profit, so change had to happen to protect shareholders.

An uncle of mine worked in Venezuela setting up factories: a cousin did the same for Portugal, Brasil and the Phillippines.

Can only echo the sentiments here. Worked as a business management consultant with the Co-op workwear buiness which was based outside Sunderland. Less than ten years ago the MD explained when i asked him what the main driver was in wanting to lose headcount... he said it costs £7.50 to mske a shirt here, but it cost £1.50 to have it made and shipped from China or Bangladesh.

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12 hours ago, saintnextlifetime said:

Yeh Bluto , the pensions arm is up in West Regent strasse. .

This is my third attempt at replying. The cat buggered up my first and I buggered up the second. Here we go.

In the early 80's before I moved to Northern Ireland, the company I worked for was chosen to advise Coats employees about pension rights and investment advice when they started their early retirement and redundancy programme. Because I was from Paisley and still lived there I was heavily involved. I met a good few guys who had been at Camphill at the same time as me and I knew a fair number of the guys who were leaving. I really enjoyed my regular visits although it was bitter sweet knowing the mills were closing. Like almost everyone from Paisley, a load of my family had worked in the mills in the preceding 100 years. I used to hear the tales, probably apocryphal , about how mill  lassies used to handle young boy apprentices. Sounded like fun.

The personnel manager at the time told me he was concerned about some of the staff. He had done research on the effects of early retirement or redundancy of long term employees and there were loads of Coats staff at that time in their 50's and 60's who left school at fifteen and never worked anywhere else. Senior management apparently told him to keep quiet as they felt the leaving terms were generous and management felt they had done enough. The benefits were generous, I came across an example of an employee who couldn't contemplate life without Coats. He was a 58 year old manager who had joined at 15 straight from school. He was receiving a terrific pension which he no longer had to contribute to as he already had more than forty years in the pension scheme. He broke down in tears in front of me, in a right old state. He wanted to work for free and couldn't understand why Coats wouldn't wear it. I never did hear how he made out but the last I heard he was doing all right.

Another difficulty Coats came across was employees who had lived in places like India and South America. A lot of them lived in very rural areas and quite often they might be the only English speaking person within miles. A lot of these guys seemed to develop psychological problems. I was asked to see a lady in Johnstone whose husband had worked long term in either Columbia or Peru. Can't remember which. The (very attractive) lady told me that her husband had gone native. Instead of coming home on leave, he had taken to going by canoe up rivers into jungle areas where to put it mildly any stranger, let alone a white man. was far from safe. Coats had sent out his redundancy and pension entitlement but he just didn't want to know. Needless to say, his wife did. I was given a number to ring the bloke. Sounds crazy now in this day of mobile phones but in 82 or 83 I had to get the go ahead from my boss. It was a waste of time anyway. I'm pretty sure the phone was answered by the right guy but got the 'no speaky da English'. Me neither. Coats made sure, rightly, that the bloke's wife got her entitlement. The guy's wife told me confidentially, that she was pretty sure he used to take a local girl with him on his canoe trips to interpret. And possibly provide other  services. Never heard the outcome.

I have a second cousin who retired at that time. He is still around at the age of 91. I was speaking to him at a family funeral a few years ago and he told me he could hardly spend all his monthly pension. The annual increase compounding over thirty odd years made sure of that,

I felt almost privileged to have that involvement with The Mills. I always wondered what they were like inside and I got to see some of it. Just so sad that it all came to a terrible end. Pityme's post above more or less says it all. Don't think there was an alternative.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
18 minutes ago, whydowebother said:


Seriously, how good is this ?

Brilliant :)

How good was our town ?

Love this.

Yeah , that was really good . What a sad demise though . It just shows how reliant it was on the mills . 

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8 hours ago, Isle Of Bute Saint said:

9pm BB2 Tonight everyone. 

Thanks IOBS I am glad I watched this. Really good. Strange to see the magnificent old buildings again.Never really appreciated how huge Coats and Clarks were globally. Left feeling proud of Paisley and a sense of loss.

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Really was good to watch but I was surprised that the Anchor Mill being turned into flats wasn't mention. Great to see how companies like them looked after their workers, and also how they built some of Paisley great building instead of the greed of large companies today. Also good seeing other factories like Brown & Polson being shown since I used to live next to it with my Dad and Mum both working there.  

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