Courtaulds and the Hosiery and Knitwear Industry. A study of acquisition, merger and decline

Notes:

Based on a PhD thesis, Nottingham University, 2005. The writer had from 1966 worked in the industry. Writes in depth about the rise and fall of the hosiery and knitwear industry from c1960 to the end of 20th century through the experience of Courtaulds, using company archives and interviews with executives. Describes the firm's move into clothing and textiles industry, building a vertically integrated structure as a response to decline in its other business areas, eg man made fibres; its method of doing so through acquisitions; its relationship with the retail industry for the sale of its output; the damage inflicted by overseas competition. 'The text examines how Courtaulds, a highly funded and previously successful multinational manufacturing conglomerate, with access to the UK's greatest retailers, reacted to changing domestic and global trading conditions and why its hosiery and knitwear manufacturing sector went into almost total oblivion'. Identifies the challenges facing the business; its structure and management characteristics; and the issues leading to its decline - its inappropriate vertical structure; globalisation and low cost overseas competition; and the demands of retailers, notably Marks & Spencer. The sections are: 1] 'Origins of Courtaulds in hosiery and knitwear'; 2] 'Kearton widens the conglomerate'; 3] 'History of hosiery and knitwear acquisitions' - dealing individually with each acquisition [pp39-109]; 4] 'Kearton's leagacy'; 5] 'Changes under Kearton's successors - devolution and merger'; 6] 'Employment, labour and industrial relations'; 7] 'Changing markets'; 8] 'Changing supply chain'; 9] 'Courtauld Textiles Plc, 1990-2000'