Business Focus

In this first feature he focuses on Garnetts, one of Otley's

oldest and biggest employers.

For centuries, the fast-flowing waters of the River Wharfe have been the one constant factor in the changing fortunes of the paper mill based on its Otley banks.

As far back as the 16th century, its water was used by monks to

produce textiles.

Now it is the site of one of Europe's foremost paper-making

companies, spread over 25 acres, and Otley's biggest manufacturing employer with 230 staff.

And, like the waters of the Wharfe, over the years the mill's fortunes have risen and fallen, with new owners taking charge and the focus of the business changing direction.

Most recently, in 1990, the firm was taken over by Eldridge Investments, who retained the Garnetts name, but introduced a

fundamental tide of change in its operations.

At the time the firm's major involvement was in the hugely-

competitive commodities market, producing envelopes and other such basic paper products.

Faced with increasing competition from across the globe, the new

owners steered the company in a different direction, towards the high added-value niche market of more specialised paper products - in

layman's terms, paper-based items which leave the factory either embossed, laminated, coated or lacquered.

With the owners taking a refreshingly long-sighted strategy of

ploughing profits back into the business with new machinery and heavy investment in research and design, and taking advantage of the largely European-based demands for more environmentally-

friendly products, the firm set about producing the next generation of paper products - more versatile, colourful, a green alternative to

plastic packaging.

Managing director Bipin S. Gandhi says in today's climate, the firm's very continued existence as a viable company is testament to the change

In an industry that does not readily inspire mass interest, it may come as something of a surprise that Garnetts produces the water-resistant paper for most of the nation's billboards, or that your grease and heat resistant chip cone could well be Garnetts, the first company in the country to create such a product.

Ever noticed how the cover of your A4 Lever Arch file is no longer plastic, but is made of paper instead - it's Garnetts.

When you get the Monopoly set out, take a second to feel the board. The street names may be Park Lane and Knightsbridge, but they're all 'built' on foundations made of Garnett's paper.

As part of its changing direction, the firm also looked to increase exports and, by the mid-1990s, over half of its business was heading overseas, helping to redress the balance of the firm importing its basic paper from all over the globe.

And there-in lies Garnetts' current biggest challenge.

With the strong pound leaving UK companies struggling to compete overseas, Garnetts has had to look to trim its costs and increase

profitability.

Mr Gandhi says the workforce has reacted positively to the recent changes, and, most importantly for the workers and the town, he remains confident of the company's long-term future: "What we are saying is that we are not prepared to lay down and die.

"We know our markets, our strengths, and our products and we are confident that will keep us going for the next 250 years."

With the firm maintaining its close links with the community, some families having had three generations working there, the entire town is hopeful such optimism is well-founded, and hopeful, that as long as the Wharfe flows, its water will be used at the mill and then returned, cleaner than it went in, having played a vital role in keeping one part of the town's industrial lifeblood pumping.

l Local business news should be sent to James Wills at 9 Orchard Gate, Otley, LS21 3NX, tel 01943 465555, for

inclusion in Focus on Business.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.