Diamonds Are Not Forever

Times are certainly changing for Pringle of Scotland, one of the oldest and most respected names in golf apparel. In addition to being put up for sale by their owners Dawson International, they have now dropped their famous trademark diamonds from the design of their latest line of golf sweaters, shirts and fleeces.

Despite an acquisition price tag which could be as low as £5 million, according to one analyst, the company have pressed ahead with the launch of their winter range which is currently being modelled in promotional literature by Nick Faldo among others.

Details of Pringle's availability have been circulated to potentially interested parties in what is the latest in a long saga of downscaling and squeezed margins going back to the early 1990s.

Dawson International, who reported a £10.6 million pre-tax loss for the first six months of the year, have recently been winding down Pringle's cashmere products and the bulk of their products are now in lamb's wool.

Over the past five years there have been hundreds of redundancies at Pringle's Hawick and Galashiels factories, caused largely by the company being systematically undercut by overseas competitors, mainly from the Far East.

Now, with an international company likely to step in for Pringle, the 450-strong workforce will be worried about their future all over again.

Having already raised £76.6 million from asset sales, Dawson International are expected to "move strongly back into profit by the end of the financial year," according to chairman Ian Irvine.