Mandela's tartan weaver rescued by internet customers

A FAMILY firm that made tartan for the Queen and Nelson Mandela has been saved from closure in a takeover that will ensure the traditional process survives.

Had DC Dalgliesh gone out of business it is thought 90 per cent of tartans would never have been woven again, as it was the only firm producing family designs in quantities small enough for most individual buyers.

It emerged yesterday that the Selkirk-based firm had been losing money and has been rescued from imminent closure by Nick Fiddes and Adele Telford, the owners of Edinburgh-based tartan goods website Scotweb - Dalgliesh's largest customer.

Fiddes said he and his business partner had not acted entirely for commercial reasons, but believed that the mill could return to profit with a planned "six-figure" investment.

He said: "This tartan weaver wasn't just another small business going to the wall. If this mill had gone, 90 per cent of all tartans would never have been produced again. It would have been the end of centuries of tradition."

The takeover will also secure the jobs of the 17 artisan weavers who operate Dalgliesh's ancient looms - the only kind that can produce the fabric for a traditional kilt.

The company was founded by tartan enthusiast and expert Dick Coultard Dalgliesh in 1947, and was later run by his son.

In the 1960s the firm expanded, but continued to use decades-old machines because modern high-speed methods don't give the clean cut edge on both sides of the cloth that is the hallmark of a truly authentic kilt.

The company bolted electric motors on to its pedal-powered shuttle looms but the process was still much slower and labour intensive than modern weaving.

As well as the Queen and the former South African president, Dalgliesh has also produced tartans for US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, golfer Arnold Palmer, and Ivana Trump.

Fiddes said: "No other weaver produces tartans of the same quality. And no other mill can weave you just enough for a single garment in your own family tartan, which is what most tartan enthusiasts want.

"A really important part of Scotland's identity would have been lost forever."

He said Dalgliesh would be run independently of Scotweb, with the founder's grandson, Euan Dalgliesh, as managing director.

Fiddes said the firm needed to publicise its unique product better, adding he thought it had been pricing its tartans too low, trying to compete with bigger producers instead of charging a premium for its unique product.

He said the company had been "on the point of going bankrupt" when it turned to Scotweb for help.The internet firm had been providing help for some time before that.

Fiddes and Telford are funding the takeover independently of Scotweb, and declined to give financial details of the deal, which will see them take on Dalgliesh's debts.

Dalgliesh is launching a new website today.