Irish Linen Faces Global Competition

Ireland struggles with counterfeits

Fake fashion goods flooded into Ireland last year, with seizures of everything from counterfeit Prada bags to phoney Gucci watches. Figures obtained by the Irish Independent show that up to the end of September there were 241 individual seizures in the state. The total number of separate items seized was 600,000, with a total value of €1.7m, but with a full quarter of a year left the figure for the whole year could be significantly higher.

In 2004 the value of fake goods flowing into the country was a massive €2.3m from a total of 886 seizures. According to the Revenue's Intellectual Property Rights unit, which deals with fake goods, the majority of counterfeit detections are now made at the parcel post depot.

According to Noel Byrne, Customs IPR co-ordinator for the whole country, anything that can be copied and faked will be. Fake Hermes, Gucci and Louis Vuitton bags have been among the most numerous counterfeit bags detected, he said, coinciding with a rush for the real thing at designer shopping outlets.

Significant caches of sports and designer clothing, copying brands like Polo and Ralph Lauren, have also been detected by customs officers in the past year.

If these goods were not seized they would represent a significant loss to legitimate trade and would even put jobs at risk. And Revenue officials warn that, while people believe they are getting a bargain and are pulling the wool over the eyes of the design houses, the bottom line is that organised criminal gangs are profiting from the proceeds of the counterfeits.

In 1998 the OECD estimated that between 5pc and 7pc of world trade was counterfeit, amounting to €380bn in 2003.

The European Union estimates that 200,000 jobs have been lost in Europe due to counterfeiting and piracy.

3 January 2006

Guinness, shamrock and Roy Kean may be famous Irish exports, but this season's high street reveals another specialty - linen. Irish linen contributes three per cent of the world's linen, employing approx. 3000 people in the industry. Great Britain alone buys GBP 85m worth of Irish linen annually, and the estimated annual turnover of The Irish Linen Guild is GBP 150m. Purists insist that linen has to be woven in Ireland to be worthy of the Irish linen tag, with the high quality attributed to the clarity of the water.

Like most of the UK textile industry, linen has been massively affected by cheap imports from China. Eastern Europe also produces linen, and Italy is proving competitive because of currency rates and its reputation for design. Against its competitors, Northern Ireland is highly disadvantaged. Northern Ireland Textiles Association director Linda MacHugh says that electricity costs can be as much as 40 per cent higher than that of the UK mainland, and insurance costs have spiralled due to the growing litigious culture. The region's producers also face the introduction of industrial rates from 2005. Mark Windeband, marketing and sales director of Ulster Weavers, says: 'These external factors hit the bottom line and it is a disadvantage we have against China.'

Although high labour costs affect Ireland's competitiveness, it is not the only factor. The actual yarn is three-quarters of the cost of producing a meter of cloth, so only a relatively small part of the cost base is affected by where it is made. Upping production is one way to combat price deflation.

Innovation is another key tool for Irish linen to maintain a point of difference. Ulster Weavers, Northern Ireland's larger linen producer, has developed a new easy-care fabric for M&S adding fifty or sixty pence to a meter. The top end of the market where high quality linen can command up to GBP 15 per meter increasingly demands these innovations.

With UK retailers bringing back production to Europe from Asia, Irish-sourced linen can also cut lead times. Ulster operates a three-week turnaround for M&S to get fabric to Morocco for manufacture. The equivalent from China is about ten weeks. M&S have noted that sales of linen are up 100 per cent on last year.

For more information: www.Irishlinen.co.uk

8 May 2003

The finest of Irish style and fashion was celebrated in Belfast last week with the city's second Fashion Week. Following on from the success of last year's event, the organisers put together a four-day fashion week to rival shows in Milan, New York and London.

Belfast Fashion Week brought together an impressive collection of runway shows highlighting the new season look from both designer and high street names available in the province. The event featured eleven shows an exhibited collections from some of Belfast's biggest retail names.

From Rio/Brazil to Debenhams, Y2K to Diesel, everything from designer to high street, accessories to size 16 were on show throughout the week.

October 22, 2002