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"Don't take the shirt off our
backs"
05.05.09
Moville Clothing
Company appeals for help:
by Linda McGrory
AN INISHOWEN manufacturer is appealing for
Government help so he can return his employees to a
full week's work.
Shirt maker, Moville Clothing Company Ltd., employs
14 machinists at the Glencrow
Business Park in the Foyleside town. However, the
company was forced to put them on a three-day week
in January due to the economic downturn.
Company director Ray Doherty said he would love to
give his employees a five-day working week again,
not least because they, like the rest of the
country's PAYE workers, have been badly hit in
recent Budgets.
Ray who runs the company with his brothers Hilary
and Joe, said while the firm is holding its own, it
needs Government support.
"Our internet orders are up to €4,000 a week but if
we could get this figure up to around €7,000 or
€8,000 a week, we would be doing very well," said
Ray. |
He said the internet
side of the business makes up roughly 40% of the
company's annual turnover with traditional orders
from retailers such as Magee's of Donegal,
contributing the remaining 60%.
"We're only about breaking even at the moment but if
we could get some assistance to push the online
marketing side of things, it would be a great help."
Ray says it would be far more cost-effective for the
Government to assist small businesses like his to
remain employers rather than for |
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them to close, putting
people on the dole queue.
The company received a €100,000 start-up grant from
Enterprise Ireland about eight years ago but Ray
says the majority of the money was taken up by a
compulsory process that required the firm to spend
"a crazy" €80,000 on three consultants. More
recently, Moville Clothing Company was grateful to
receive a €12,000 training grant from the same
agency which "worked very well".
He is now seeking an enterprise grant that will help
create more online sales while he would like to buy
premises. Moville Clothing Company Ltd., currently
pays around €15,000 a year in rent for its two-unit
space in Glencrow. "As everyone knows and the bank
will tell you, this is dead money for a company to
be spending." Nevertheless, he acknowledges the
"breathing space" given to the company this year by
the business park owners, North East Inishowen
Tourist Development Company Ltd.
Meanwhile, Ray said he, personally, like his
machinists has been badly hit by a number of recent
Budgetary measures including the changes to Mortgage
Interest Relief. "When you combine things like the
mortgage relief and the Early Childcare Supplement
going, it's a bad blow to everyone." But he admits
things aren't all doom and gloom. Notwithstanding
big overheads like rent, water rates (the company
recently got a water rates bill for €1,200)
commercial rates and electricity costs, the local
shirt maker is still punching above its weight.
With the company's healthy online trade and growing
list of customers placing multiple orders for
specialty clergy and barrister shirts, the future
could still be very bright for Moville Clothing
Company Ltd. That is, Ray says, provided Tánaiste
and Enterprise Minister Mary Coughlan, looks
favourably on a letter he sent to her last week. |
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