SCOTTISH textiles group
Dawson International finally bowed to apparently insurmountable odds yesterday by putting itself up for sale.
The company's woes - which will necessitate yet another major round of redundancies - constitute a further crippling blow to the Borders economy.
The Borders has, in recent years, been more dependent on manufacturing than any other region of Scotland.
Dawson's news comes hard on the heels of the axing of 200 jobs at the Selkirk and Galashiels plants of American-owned printed circuit board manufacturer Viasystems.
Dawson's continuing woes, no doubt exacerbated by sterling strength and the Asian financial crisis, could be interpreted as at least a partial vindication of the company's previous management.
It may be that external conditions were always against the company.
Fashions have changed. The Chinese are keen to exploit their cashmere reserves. And technology is making it easy to exploit cheap labour furth of the UK.
Dawson's market capitalisation has more than halved, to about #94m, since former chairman Sir Ronald Miller and erstwhile managing director Nick
Kuenssberg were replaced by Derek Finlay and Peter Forrest in a boardroom coup in March 1995.
Finlay revealed yesterday that there had been no serious bid approaches for Dawson in the last couple of years.
As one analyst suggested, the group could be sold off in pieces. There is value in brands such as Pringle and the Yorkshire-based fur fabrics operation but some of the manufacturing operations may prove unpalatable to
potential buyers.
When dairy company Scottish Pride went into receivership, the manufacturing plant at Govan in Glasgow was left to rust and competitor Robert Wiseman Dairies happily snapped up the Fresh'n'Lo brand for a song.
Dawson is still in a better position than that in which
Scottish Pride ended up. But, barring some spectacular collapse in sterling, some form of piecemeal sale must remain a distinct possibility.
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