DUKINFIELD, England — June 30, 2016 —English Fine Cottons is set to start spinning and bring cotton yarn production back home to Britain.
The company has installed twenty-first century equipment at its Grade II listed Tower Mill, near Manchester, and is preparing its first batch of high-quality cotton for test production, due to start next month.
When fully operational later this year, English Fine Cottons will be the sole cotton spinner in Britain with the only plant in Europe producing superfine luxury cotton yarn using the very latest technology, from fibre preparation to spinning and winding.
The company is investing £6m in the venture. The first two containers of Supima – extra-long staple cotton from the US’s largest cotton farm in California — have already arrived on site. And work on the construction of the state-of-the-art spinning equipment is nearing completion.
The 150 foot-long compact ring spinning machines occupy the whole of the third floor of four-storey Tower Mill, which has undergone an extensive programme of restoration and renovation to accommodate the plant.
In a renaissance of the trade that kick-started Britain’s industrial revolution more than 200 years ago, these ultra-modern machines will enable English Fine Cottons to produce 500 tonnes a year of fine combed cotton yarn. With more spinning frames planned for next year, the ambition is to increase production to 1,000 tonnes by the end of 2017.
English Fine Cottons will source the world’s finest raw cotton – including Sea Island from Barbados, Suvin from India and Giza 45 from Egypt, as well as Supima.
General Manager, Andy Ogden, said: “There is a strong demand across the world for luxury goods with the ‘Made in Britain’ stamp, and our ‘raison d’etre’ is to produce the very finest luxury cotton yarn for UK designers and discerning garment manufacturers. To do so, we are creating a world-class facility that will enable us to deliver superior quality, efficiency and the highest process repeatability.
“Our priority is to give our customers an end-to-end service, by providing the best cotton yarns available and working with them throughout the supply chains, to deliver fabrics of the highest calibre that are steeped in history and provenance.”
Posted June 30, 2016
Source: English Fine Cottons
