Union Street, based in Ireland, will open a yarn spinning factory in India. The target is to spin half of its yarn requirements by April 2020, thereby reducing the company’s exposure to Chinese yarn manufacturers, who increased prices substantially in the early part of 2018. The group's production capacity at its spinning factory will be increased in order to produce all of its yarn requirements by the end of the financial year April 2021. Union Street, which sells more than 90 per cent of its wares outside either the UK or Europe to major worldwide conglomerates, saw its profit after tax almost halve. But over the year its staff numbers increased from 653 to 683, most of them operating at factories in India.
The company, founded in the halcyon days of the linen trade in the north, is primarily now involved in weaving, dyeing and finishing of linen and linen cotton fabrics, for sale to the clothing sector. Sales rose by 19 per cent in the year to last April.
Union Street is privately company owned and has demonstrated sustained year-on-year organic growth, profit and financial stability. The company has a policy of continual product development, investing an average of 35 per cent of revenues back into R&D to ensure that the product portfolio is always at the leading edge of technological innovation.
