The Western European Economy by Allan M. Williams

Author:Allan M. Williams [Williams, Allan M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Human Geography
ISBN: 9781317508953
Google: rIysBwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-03-27T05:02:34+00:00

The details of scale and ownership are far more complex, revealing, inevitably, a strong measure of polarization. For example, in France there are a small number of large companies, such as Prouvast, which have vertically integrated fibre and clothing production, but there are also enormous numbers of small-scale clothing firms, especially in Paris. In West Germany there are some very large-scale fibre producers, such as Hoeschst and Anic Fibre, operating alongside very large numbers of small-scale and mostly family-owned clothing factories.

The UK is the exception within Europe. Not only is there a high level of concentration, but it also has two of the world’s largest textile and clothing companies (Table 27). Courtaulds is the world’s third largest company, although a large proportion of its income comes from its diversified activities, while the Coats Viyella group is a new conglomerate formed by the merger of Coats Patons and Vantona Viyella in 1986. The reasons behind this merger reflect much of the underlying logic of the tendency to concentration: that is, the requirements of internationalization, diversification and integration:

With operations in 30 countries, most of them complementary to Vantona Viyella, Coats was the perfect partner. Vantona is already the UK market leader in household textiles (Dorma sheets), shirts (Peter England, Rocada, Viyella), uniforms and knitwear. It shares with Courtaulds the role of main supplier to Marks and Spencer and is strong in carpets and hosiery. All these sectors are now capable of being expanded through Coats’s overseas connections. In addition, it has gained Coats’s high class Jaeger retailing chain and Jean Muir name into which it would be possible to put some of its Van Heusen and Viyella clothes. (Financial Times, 12 February 1986)

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