Dozens of jobs lost at Scots luxury textile firm Johnstons of Elgin 'worn by Royal Family'

Dozens of employees at a historic Scottish textile firm, which supplies items to the Royal Family, have been made redundant.

Johnstons of Elgin, dating back over 226 years, received a Royal Warrant this year to create high-end tweeds, knitwear and woven accessories for King Charles and family.

The textile firm first opened as a wool mill in Elgin in 1797 and has stores in Edinburgh, London, St Andrews and mills in Hawick and Moray – where jobs have been impacted.

The company confirmed 22 compulsory redundancies, 18 voluntary redundancies, and the redeployment of around 15 members of staff have been made.

The firm announced the restructuring plans at the Elgin plant last month and said the decisions have been made to “put the company in a position to return to growth in the future.”

Chris Gaffney, CEO of Johnstons of Elgin said: “It is of course a difficult process to go through when colleagues leave the business, but our consultative group have worked hard to make the process fair and to mitigate many of the losses through voluntary redundancies and redeployment.

“We are aware of other local businesses that are hiring, so we hope that those impacted will find other opportunities soon.

“The growth that we have seen since the pandemic means that our overall workforce has grown from 829 at the end of 2020 to 1,084 after these changes.

“We have taken these difficult decisions now to be in a position to sustain that level of employment and to put the company in a position to return to growth in future as the market improves.”

Unite the Union said it was successful in saving jobs through negotiations with the firm and is supporting affected employees.

Marc Jackson, Unite industrial officer, said: “Unite has worked tirelessly to save as many jobs as possible at Johnstons of Elgin.

“The objective was to stave off as many compulsory redundancies from the 65 that were originally earmarked.

“We have been successful in saving dozens of jobs through negotiations with Johnstons.

“All efforts will now go into helping people find alternative jobs in the local area for those who now unfortunately find themselves out of work.”