Our Scott & Fyfe Journey

Scott & Fyfe was established in 1864 by Mr Robert Scott & Mr Hugh Fyfe as a linen works. The linen was supplied to the local area and used for sails on the boats of the River Tay and for covers for wagons. At this time Tayport Spinning Works was also opened in order to provide the Scott & Fyfe factory with spun and prepared yarns for the weaving process.

William Hurrie Tough joined Scott & Fyfe as a trainee clerk at the age of fourteen. He came straight from Tayport High School to begin his traineeship. He was to become the first in a succession of the Tough family to work at Scott & Fyfe.

Linen as a product was becoming less desirable and so jute expanded rapidly within the local area, from the 1850’s onwards. Thousands of people were employed within the jute industry in Dundee, Brechin and Forfar, so Scott & Fyfe made the logical decision to enter into this market.

After 36 years at Scott & Fyfe, Mr Hugh Fyfe left the business. Following his departure, William Tough was promoted to Production Manager. He, in turn, made the decision to cease all the remaining linen production and concentrate entirely on jute weaving and finishing.

William Tough was appointed Managing Director and Scott & Fyfe was incorporated as a Limited Company.

A new 150 HP steam engine was installed at Scott & Fyfe. The engine powered one hundred and eighty looms and all the preparing and finishing machines. It consumed fifty tonnes of coal per week.

World War One During the war, jute fabrics continued to be manufactured at Scott & Fyfe as an essential product for the war effort. Jute was used for camouflage uniforms, sacks, tents and many other valuable purposes.

James Tough, William's son, and recent graduate of engineering at Dundee Technical College, started his five-year apprenticeship at Scott & Fyfe.

R & R.L Bayne started up as a transport company operating as a local courier in Tayport. They transported money for banks, alcohol for the pubs and shopping for the locals.

James Tough became joint Managing Director with his father. He then became Chairman after William’s death at the age of 65.

Due to the war and the introduction of the “Concentration Scheme”, Scott & Fyfe was under threat of closure as pressure increased to amalgamate workforces. This would have meant labour from Scott & Fyfe would be transferred to Dundee. James Tough and Mr. Henderson Stewart, Unionist MP for East Fife, fought the case and following a lengthy debate in the House of Commons, the company was permitted to continue in Tayport. As a resolution, only the looms that met requirements of supply departments for the war were allowed to run at the time of concentration. Scott & Fyfe usually ran one hundred and eighty looms; however, they had to reduce them to one hundred and sixty.

Installation of electric light and power at Scott & Fyfe.

This period saw the introduction of an engineering workshop, which was built and equipped at Scotscraig Linen Works. This employed between twenty five and thirty engineers.

James’ son, Hamish Tough, joined Scott & Fyfe. He had previously been in the national service in the royal signals for two years.

Installation of air conditioning in the factory. This improved working conditions and employee satisfaction.

Renovations took place in the factory. The old looms were upgraded in the mechanic workshop to automatic shuttle loaders. The automatic loaders (ECCO) were produced by TC Keay of Dundee and fitted by the Scott & Fyfe mechanics along with automatic warp stops. They converted approximately thirty six looms which allowed one weaver to monitor six looms instead of the usual one or two.

On May 11th, a devastating fire destroyed Scott & Fyfe's manufacturing facilities, sparing only the original building and mechanics workshop. This was a major blow, as the company had recently modernised with automatic looms, electric power, and improved facilities. Weavers were sent home with holding pay, while men were employed by the demolishers and builders. Salvaged looms were rebuilt, with up to eighty running in the original building. During reconstruction, a shift system ensured round-the-clock production, while competitors in Dundee handled yarn preparation and cloth finishing. Thanks to this support and the company’s determination, Scott & Fyfe satisfied customers and even made a slight profit.

The factory was rebuilt within a year. The weaving shed featured a novel design with looms on elevated platforms, allowing cloth to pass below into large roll-up units, producing one-metre diameter rolls and enabling inspection on 132 looms. Previously, only smaller rolls were possible, with no inspection capability. The yarn preparation shed was re-roofed, and a new two-story finishing department was added, housing calendars, finishing equipment and a dispatch loading bay. Scott & Fyfe became fully operational by mid-1957, thanks to the tremendous efforts of employees and suppliers.

Regulations were put into place to monitor the use of jute. A league of jute manufacturers was introduced and prices of jute were fixed. This league allowed other companies to observe the table of profits of other jute businesses. The figures were based per inch of loom usage so that sizes and names of factories could not be established. Figures were also based on every one hundred tonnes of raw jute before, during and after the war. The industry was built around this league table. Scott & Fyfe were always in the top three showing how competitive they were in the Jute trade.

Beginning of the end of the jute trade in Dundee and surrounding areas and opening of the Tay Road Bridge opening up a vital connection between Dundee and Fife for business like Scott & Fyfe.

Hamish Tough visited the USA to evaluate the potential polypropylene tape fabrics. As a result of the visit, spinning and wide just weaving projects were abandoned. The development work started on weaving polypropylene tapes on jute looms and on new shuttleless looms.

Scott & Fyfe purchased their first Malimo loom for new fabric developments to replace traditional jute products. This loom was able to stitch-bond products (a technique in which stitches can be sewn or knitted through a material to form a fabric).

First trials on rapier looms with polypropylene tapes. Rapier loons created flat woven products.

Sixty six jute shuttle looms were removed and twenty four 168 inch SMIT Rapier looms for producing polypropylene fabrics were installed. This was a major investment for Scott & Fyfe.

Development of printed stitched bonded backing of carpet underlay patented by Scott & Fyfe. This was named Textron.

A further forty eight shuttle looms were replaced with twenty four Sulzer weaving machines. This was a major investment for the company.

Hamish was appointed Managing Director at the age of forty.

Tayport Spinning Company shut down and Scott & Fyfe made the decision to purchase the building in order to expand production, development and testing facilities.

The decision was made to get rid of the SMIT rapier looms and replace them with wide width Sulzers with heavy shuttles for FIBC (Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers) fabric weaving.

Until this point, Scott & Fyfe had only supplied their products through merchants; however, this year saw the company’s sales policy change. The company started to make direct sales to customers using polypropylene fabrics, Textron and tufted carpet backings. Sales had only been to a few direct outlets with the balance mainly through Dundee Merchants.

In August, twelve Sulzer 183 inch looms were installed.

Ron Thomson was appointed as the first sales manager for Scott & Fyfe, he previously worked for Polytape SFS.

Hamish Tough was appointed Chairman at the age of forty five.

The purchase of a five metre Malimo for fibre stitching. The same year the first computer system was installed at a cost of £60,000.

Polypropylene tape extrusion facilities were introduced. Two Filtrona extrusion lines were purchased costing £185,985.

Almost all the jute manufacturing in Dundee and the surrounding area had ceased but the industry had changed Dundee and Fife forever. Scott & Fyfe was now expanding into different products and markets.

Carding equipment was installed to enter the stitch bonded fibre markets.

Purchase of 2 Liba weft insertion knitting machines to compliment Malimo stitch bonding equipment for production of polyester base fabrics. This allowed Scott & Fyfe to enter into the market for weft insertion fabrics for PVC coating. This product was used for lorry covers, side curtains, belts and the mining industry.

Hamish Tough was awarded an MBE for his contributions to the development of the polypropylene and industrial textile industries within the UK.

The purchase of a coating machine for adhesive and polypropylene coated products allowed Scott & Fyfe to expand their range further.

Hamish’s son, Richard, joined Scott & Fyfe.

Installation of Mayer weft insertion knitting machines for the manufacture of specialised floor covering products.

Scott & Fyfe was now in full-scale production for the one ton FIBC market.

Scott & Fyfe purchased R&D Bayne, originally R&R. L Bayne. With their own transport fleet this allowed easier and more cost effective export.

In-house creping of paper began. This year also saw an extension to Scotscraig offices at the site of the original Scotscraig Linen Works.

Start of major export business into Europe for woven polypropylene fabrics for the FIBC market.

Tayport Works was extended by adding a new 3,000 sqm building. A car park for the employees at the factory and an access road was also built.

Start of major export business to Australia and New Zealand through sales of Textron.

Scott & Fyfe was growing fast with sales of 70-80 million sqm being dispatched from Tayport with a value of £12 million. This gave them a market share in the industrial textiles market of 10%. Products included woven, needled, knitted and coated fabrics. This was the first phase of their major development.

Further 3,500 sqm production extension to Tayport Works.

Hamish Tough’s second son, David Tough, joined Scott & Fyfe.

Hamish Tough became Chairman of the European Association of Textile Polyolefins.

Bacloc, a secondary backing for tufted carpets was created by Scott & Fyfe. This was created through their experience of producing fabrics for the rubber underlay business worldwide along with their expertise in introducing composite fabrics using sackraft, polypropylene and polyester yarns.

Scott & Fyfe saw exports increase in the USA.

New multi purpose Fare extrusion line installed. Circular loom weaving was also introduced to expand product range for intermediate bulk container market.

Scott & Fyfe was the no.1 supplier of FIBC fabrics in Europe from the industry’s largest weaving shed.

4,500 sqm extension built at Tayport Works to house Scott & Fyfe’s expanding product range. Scott & Fyfe now has a total area of 28,000 sqm.

PVC Coating machine installed. A Barmag co-extrusion line was added to assist developments and increase extrusion quantities.

Scott & Fyfe purchased Flemings Textiles Ltd., Kilmarnock. This allowed entry into glass fabric production for the reinforced plastics market.

Purchase of six circular looms to allow more circular weaving for the FIBC market.

Installation of the fifth extrusion line.

Volume supply increased in loop fabrics for industrial applications.

Installed in-line printing for our Textron products.

Scott & Fyfe developed a circular knitted fabric used for side impact airbag bladders within the automotive industry.

Scott & Fyfe used their technical expertise in stitch bonding, knitting and glass reinforcement fabrics to create a new breakthrough for closed mould applications. This product was called Polymat and a subsequent range of Polymat Hi-Flow products was developed.

Opening of a 15,000 sqm circular weaving plant for FIBC bags in Shenzen, China.

Opening of a 3,500 sqm circular (FIBC) weaving plant in Matehuala, Mexico.

Further Polymat Hi-Flow products were added to the Scott & Fyfe range.

Flemings Textiles Ltd name changed to Scott & Fyfe Composites Ltd and all operations transferred to Tayport. As a subsidiary company of Scott & Fyfe Ltd in Kilmarnock for thirteen years, the decision was made to integrate the two organisations as part of a focused strategy within the composites sector. This synergy allowed Scott & Fyfe Composites to continue to develop innovative products and added value services whilst maintaining core values of high quality and customer service excellence.

The launch of Polymat “Free-Flow”. This expanded Scott & Fyfe’s offering to the composites market further.

A high pressure and low pressure feeder pipe for drip feed irrigation was introduced in the Scott & Fyfe product range. This product was developed in partnership with the world’s leading drip feed irrigation company and was supplied worldwide.

NOW Team created through working with Glasgow School of Art. This pilot programme encouraged new ways of working to develop new innovative ideas in a new and creative manner. This cross-functional team of thirteen Scott & Fyfe employees called NOW (New Opportunities Within) took part in thirteen design innovation workshops delivered monthly in the form of two day workshops over a six month period. Through this programme Scott & Fyfe developed a remit to drive market-led, researched, insightful ideas through the organisation.

Hamish Tough retired at the age of seventy seven and Nick Kuenssberg OBE was appointed chairman.

Closure of FIBC plants in China and Mexico, Scott & Fyfe decided to focus on niche markets, working closely with companies to provide them with tailor made solutions.

Coating felts for the Cured-In-Place-Pipe industry were introduced.

Scott & Fyfe was shortlisted for Business Innovation of the Year at the prestigious Scottish Business Awards.

Scott & Fyfe expanded their horizons working with new countries including Russia, Latvia and Columbia.

Polycarb was introduced into the composites market. A stitch bonded uni-directional carbon tape produced from high tow count fibres. This product was designed to be used within the marine, constriction and military markets.

John Swinney, MSP & Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Environment and Sustainable Growth, unveiled a plaque to mark the opening of the new innovation space and museum on the 12th November. The ceremony was attended by Scott & Fyfe staff, customers and partners.

Scott & Fyfe introduced a new company structure introduced to target market areas worldwide through separate Business units and teams. The ideation team was also introduced to focus on new markets and innovative product introductions.

Michelle Quadrelli, business manager of the irrigation pod, was awarded the Employee Innovation Award at the Philip Baxendale Awards on the 14th November.

The company changed from a family owned company to an employee owned company. Chairman, Nick Kuenssberg, said: “This move by the Tough family is to be welcomed; this development will help to underwrite an exciting future for the company and its employees.”

Our chief executive, John Lupton, was awarded Fife and Central Scotland’s regional director of the year at the Institute of Directors Awards for his role in transforming the fortunes of the historic Fife business.

Scott & Fyfe was short listed for Business Innovation of the Year at the renowned Scottish Business Awards.