Paisley loses last link with Coats as office is closed

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Paisley is to lose a historic link with the Coats family as the company has confirmed it is closing its office in the town.Eight people are being made redundant as the office in Mile End Mill is closing and the remaining 12 members of staff have been told to work from home.The Coats name, together with Clarks, is synonymous with Paisley’s mill history and its place on the global stage which dates back to the early 1800s.Don't miss the latest headlines from around Renfrewshire.

Sign up to our newsletters here.The company, which is now headquartered down south and has factories across the world, had retained a Paisley office in Mile End Mill, part of Abbey Mill Business Centre.Local historian Stephen Clancy admitted it was “a sad day for the town”.He added: “It’ll be a big surprise to many people that they even have an office here.“When I was involved in the Thread Mill Museum we were trying to contact Coats for several years to get involved.“We didn’t realise they had an office right above us all that time.“When I’ve done my history walks, they’re usually with locals, we’d end up at Anchor Mills and I’d talk about the Coats and Clark families and that Coats still has an office in Paisley and they’d be very surprised.“But they’ve always been pleased the link is still there.“The mills are something people in Paisley are aware of and very proud of.

A lot of the history here is to do with textiles.“In a lot of my talks I speak about the early thread industry and linen thread rather than cotton.

It was such a big industry here before the Coats and Clarks families, people don’t often know about that.”It’s not the first time Paisley has lost its link with Coats.It closed the Anchor Mill in 1980 and moved the factory to Newton