Textile Companies to Collaborate
Listed under: News
Published: Friday, November 10, 2006
A new initiative by Scottish Enterprise's textiles team has been launched, to help textile companies work together to generate new ideas for product development and become more competitive in the international marketplace
Textiles Lab aims to get more textile companies in Scotland to work together to combine different skills and expertise to develop new fibres, fabrics and production methods that will help to grow these Scottish-based businesses.
Initially, selected companies will come together to brainstorm ideas for new products and those with the biggest market potential will be taken forward and turned into commercially viable products. Scottish Enterprise's textiles team will also be running an Innovation Workshop, open to all companies in Scotland, designed to encourage companies to look at innovative practices and develop further ideas that can be progressed by the Textiles Lab.
"If Scotland is to remain ahead of its competitors, our textiles companies must constantly look at developing new products or ways of working which will help them to increase revenue and maintain their competitive advantage. By working together, companies can benefit from skills and experience that they might not necessarily have within their own business and add value to the overall textiles sector in Scotland," says Kirsty Scott, manager of the Scottish Textiles team at Scottish Enterprise.
Textiles Lab follows a pilot project last year in which Scottish Enterprise supported companies to work with leading designers to further their product development. The project was a huge success with £15,000 of initial funding from Scottish Enterprise helping to encourage more than £100,000 of investment by five companies and resulted in a series of new products being developed.
"Some Borders textiles companies are failing to invest sufficiently in product design as it can be very costly in terms of using equipment and staff that would otherwise be used for manufacturing. This initiative will enable us to share that risk with companies by providing support at the early stage of product development and helping them to work more closely together to take it forward,” explains David Gass, chief executive of Scottish Enterprise Borders, which is funding the initiative.
Initially, selected companies will come together to brainstorm ideas for new products and those with the biggest market potential will be taken forward and turned into commercially viable products. Scottish Enterprise's textiles team will also be running an Innovation Workshop, open to all companies in Scotland, designed to encourage companies to look at innovative practices and develop further ideas that can be progressed by the Textiles Lab.
"If Scotland is to remain ahead of its competitors, our textiles companies must constantly look at developing new products or ways of working which will help them to increase revenue and maintain their competitive advantage. By working together, companies can benefit from skills and experience that they might not necessarily have within their own business and add value to the overall textiles sector in Scotland," says Kirsty Scott, manager of the Scottish Textiles team at Scottish Enterprise.
Textiles Lab follows a pilot project last year in which Scottish Enterprise supported companies to work with leading designers to further their product development. The project was a huge success with £15,000 of initial funding from Scottish Enterprise helping to encourage more than £100,000 of investment by five companies and resulted in a series of new products being developed.
"Some Borders textiles companies are failing to invest sufficiently in product design as it can be very costly in terms of using equipment and staff that would otherwise be used for manufacturing. This initiative will enable us to share that risk with companies by providing support at the early stage of product development and helping them to work more closely together to take it forward,” explains David Gass, chief executive of Scottish Enterprise Borders, which is funding the initiative.
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