The AMA Group brings manufacturing back to Peterlee heartland

HURTLING 90mph down Sochi's daunting ice track, Lizzy Yarnold's Winter Olympic efforts were a thing of real beauty for sporting purists.

Clamour for the 25-year-old golden girl was immediate, with countless superlatives lauded upon the skeleton star's finesse.

HARD AT WORK: A Dewhirst shirt factory in 1964

Her sponsor's patriotic red, white and blue tracksuit, however, didn't quite carry the same elegance.

A rather incongruous combination it may seem, but sport and the style of competitors' kits have resonated together for years.

Look back 34 years and the situation was quite the same.

When Great Britain's Alpine ski team prepared for the 1980 US Lake Placid Games, they drew the eye with striking fur coats made by Astraka, in Shildon, County Durham.

But, as former skeleton heroine Amy Williams will attest, sporting stars change, and fashion also refuses to stand still.

Just a few years on from Lake Placid, the North-East's reputation as a clothing-making heartland laid in tatters, evaporating as quickly as the snow under Sochi's bright sunshine.

Companies were shifting work away from the region, leaving hundreds of staff out of jobs.

But trends also return, and the trade is coming back to the North-East.

The AMA Group is creating 100 jobs with a new factory in Peterlee, east Durham.

The firm will make dresses, skirts, swimwear, jumpers and blouses for high street retailers, supermarkets and designers.

The factory, near engineering company GT Group's Whitehouse Business Park base, also stands close to one of Dewhirst's former Peterlee sites.

A remnant of the industry's past, the building stands for sale, letters spelling out the once dominant Dewhirst name now falling from the sign above its doors.

MAKING STRIDES: Norman Greetham, the Dewhirst design manager, shows off a new line in trousers made for Marks and Spencer

But AMA bosses aim to change that barren landscape, with production expected to start in April.

The company will take on about 50 workers this year and more than 50 next year, and will set up a training division alongside East Durham College to develop the next generation of machinists.

The factory will also include a consultancy service to design and develop products.

The venture is being launched by former Claremont Garments' directors Julie and David Price and Paul Watts, along with two other directors, and will steadily grow from its new base.

Sitting in East Durham Employability Trust offices, AMA's factory dominates the Peterlee business park skyline, a superiority the company is keen to continue.

Mrs Price ran lingerie business Essensual Lingerie after Claremont Garments UK closed its manufacturing sites, and says the region is ready to retake its place in the clothing-making market.

The AMA Group's premises in Traynor Way, Whitehouse Business Park, in Peterlee

She said shoppers are becoming increasingly aware of the perceptions surrounding the poor working conditions in overseas textile operations, with manufacturers also facing rising costs to buy products from abroad and reduced flexibility from Far-East countries.

She said: “The sector was at the heart of the North-East for years and particularly in east Durham, but when retailers started looking overseas in a bid to reduce costs, it became none existent.

“However, we are becoming much more conscious of where our clothing comes from and that has made retailers look at their suppliers.

“Companies are becoming more astute and people are thinking about where they spend their money and how they can get value for it.

“By creating jobs in the UK, families and their friends who are skilled in the industry can take advantage of the posts and earn money.

“The UK is synonymous for quality and design and we have never lost the young designers.

“They are still coming through and that's why we want to provide a vehicle to help some of them get out there and into the marketplace.

“We are in an area that has huge expertise and history in this sector and want to be best at what we do.”

The company says it will start with 20 workers on its first day of production, with machinists working in groups of up to eight to maximise work and build a steady stream of clothes for clients.

HIGH-TECH ENVIRONMENT: Directors Paul Watts, left, Julie Price and David Price, from the AMA Group, at their new premises in Traynor Way, Whitehouse Business Park, in Peterlee

Mr Watts said the industry is the target of a number of stereotypes, which AMA is keen to remove.

He said: “The clothing industry is nothing like the rag trade it is referred to.

“People think of the underwear factory in Coronation Street, but that couldn't be further from the real image.

“It is a very high-tech environment and we are very good at the things we do.

“We encourage people to work their way up the ladder and become increasingly successful and a lot of the people we took on at Claremont are now in senior jobs around the industry.”

As I leave the interview, I drive to the new factory site, passing the relic of Dewhirst's former base.

The geography couldn't have aligned itself more aptly.

Dewhirst sits directly in the shadows of AMA's building, languishing as a forgotten zone sadly out of fashion.

But the trend is changing, and AMA is convinced it can herald the rebirth of something special.

Mrs Price added: “There is a big buzz about bringing garments home and getting away from the work in the Far-East.

“We are bringing back a business that is efficient and one of the best in the industry.

“We have developed a very ambitious and exciting business plan which, over the coming months, will become a reality.

“I genuinely believe we can lead the revival of the industry, not just in east Durham, but the North-East as a whole.”

Who were County Durham's clothing-makers?

• SHILDON-BASED Astraka was known throughout the Eastern bloc for its luxurious fur coats, with supermodel Twiggy, Lionel Blair and even the Bolshoi Ballet endorsing its products.
• The company, which started as Alfred Morris Furs, in London, in 1898, relocated to County Durham in the mid-1940s and, within five years, employed 200 people at its Blyvoor Works.
• In 1950, the Canadian Defence Research Board, in a bid to save its vanishing reindeer, developed a synthetic alternative to caribou skin.
• The Shildon firm took up the worldwide licence to market this fake material, with Astraka faux fur available in Harrods and Selfridges.
• However, at the start of the 1980s, Astraka began to reduce its workforce, with overseas competition hitting the County Durham textile industry as eastern Europeans discovered they could make fake fur cheaper.
• Astraka slipped into receivership in February 1988, jeopardising 270 jobs, and closed in May 1988.
• In 2003, textile firm Sara Lee Courtaulds, which had factories in Peterlee and Bishop Auckland, revealed 350 staff were affected in plans to close plants.
• The company blamed the decision on its failure to secure a new contract on Marks and Spencer's Autograph range.
• Waxed jacket-maker J Barbour and Sons closed its plant in Crook in 2003, where 87 people were employed.
• Barbour still has a factory in South Shields, South Tyneside, and provide jackets, shirts and trousers for players at Newcastle Falcons rugby union team.
• In 2002, 400 jobs were lost when Dewhirst closed its Sunderland factory.
• The firm, which made a number of products, including trousers for Marks and Spencer, had already axed 700 jobs when it shut its three operations in Peterlee, in 2000.
• Claremont Garments, which had factories in Stanley, Peterlee, West Auckland and Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, closed with the loss of hundreds of jobs.
• The company made clothing for Marks and Spencer.
• Zip factory Coats Optilon cut 300 jobs in Peterlee and more than 100 posts at Coats Paint, in Darlington, in 2000.
• In 1991, more than 450 jobs were lost when Ramar, in Crook, County Durham, went into receivership.
• Ramar was founded by entrepreneur Max Radin and at its peak had three factories in the North-East and one in London, employing 1,500 workers.