Camira Fabrics aims for a sting in the tale

Soldiers during the Crimean War relied on uniforms made from nettles to keep warm at a time when fabric makers had to be versatile.

A century and a half later, Yorkshire textile firm Camira Fabrics is helping to lead a revolution in nettle farming.

The company is one of the leaders of the aptly-named STING project, which uses nettles in fabric production.

Camira is also set to reap benefits from the rapid expansion of Starbucks in India and China, as it helps the coffee chain to dispose of jute sacks in an environmentally friendly way.

At a time when the public sector is feeling the pinch, Camira, which is based in Mirfield, West Yorkshire, is still growing. There’s a good chance you’re sitting on some of its fabric now, because it’s used by banks, bus, coach and rail firms.

Camira, which has 500 staff and annual sales of just under £50m, is one of the largest textile firms in Britain.

It aims to create up to 100 jobs in Yorkshire by breaking the £100m turnover barrier within the next five years.

As one of the seven partners in the four-year STING (Sustainable Technology in Nettle Growing) project, Camira is looking to develop nettles as an environmentally friendly crop. Workers on the project are studying wild nettles to see if they could be grown on a large scale in Britain. In the past, nettles have been used in Scotland as a replacement for linen.

“Nettles are ideal for fabric because of their flame retardant qualities – they are durable and sustainable,’’ said Cheryl Kindness, the development director at Camira. “Along with De Montfort University, we have attracted £1m of funding from Defra to work on the agronomy and development of nettles as a non-food crop. We are growing crops of nettles in Leicester, the North York Moors and Cornwall and on brown field sites, using land that would have been waste.”

The project is assessing whether nettle fibre can be used in upholstery fabrics on a large scale.

If the project is a success, Britain’s top corporate talent could soon be sitting on nettles.

Camira is also helping Starbucks to become greener.

Andrew Schofield, the company’s sales and marketing director, said: “Starbucks coffee beans are delivered in jute sacks which used to go to landfill. As part of their CSR (corporate social responsibility) policies, they wanted to find a way of recycling them. We were approached by Wools of New Zealand which has its UK base in Ilkley, and The Formary, a New Zealand recycling design company, to collaborate on a project with Starbucks.”

The project is helping to keep textile workers busy in West Yorkshire. The sacks come from Starbucks’ European central roasting supplier where they are ground into fibre by textile firm Edward Clay, which is based in Ossett, West Yorkshire.

The fibre is taken to the Stork Brothers mill in Birkby, Huddersfield, in which Camira has a 50 per cent stake, where the reclaimed jute fibre is blended with New Zealand wool and spun into fibre. It then goes to Camira’s manufacturing plant in Meltham where it is woven into upholstery fabric which will be used by Starbucks.

“The fabric made from the disused sacks will be rolled out in late summer,’’ said Mr Schofield. “These old jute sacks are being turned into a luxurious fabric called Wojo. There is huge potential for growth, because there are 17,000 Starbucks worldwide plus 1,700 planned in China and India – each store needs 50 metres of fabric.

“All this is safeguarding textile jobs – there are 65 people employed at Stork Brothers and 200 at the mill we own in Meltham.”

Exports account for 60 per cent of the company’s sales, and it has a 60 to 70 per cent share of the UK office market.

Mr Schofield added: “We have opened a US office in Indianapolis where we see the Obama administrations’ interest in sustainability fitting in with our plans.

“The banking sector has been a good area for us because they spend a lot on furniture.

“When banks start merging and being bought out they change their livery and furniture. We got a lot of work out of the Abbey and Santander merger. Banks are trying to improve their branches so customers come back to the high street.”

Eastern Europe is an area of expansion and the company also has offices in Hong Kong, China, Australia, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Belgium.

INNOVATION THE KEY TO SUCCESS

ALTHOUGH Yorkshire’s textile industry is a shadow of its former self, companies like Camira are still able to compete globally by being more innovative than their low-cost rivals.

The company, which has 260 staff in Yorkshire, provides the seat fabric used on East Coast main line trains, and is also supplying the fabric for the new BBC Media base in Salford Quays.

“We are a marketing driven company, having started in 1974 without any of our own manufacturing,’’ said Andrew Schofield, the company’s sales and marketing director.

“While we manufacture more than 90 per cent of what we sell, we aim to provide solutions for our customers and if this includes products we cannot do ourselves, we will procure them.”