Lurgan weaving company secures major Middle East deal

A Lurgan based weaver has defied textile manufacturing market downturns and secured a huge coup by winning a contract to supply fine linens to a prestigious new hotel in Beirut.

The contract, won by Liddell who are based in Donaghcloney, is worth £100,000 and involves the export of fine damask linens to adorn Lebanon’s most recently completed regeneration project, the Metropolitan Palace Hotel.

The contract represents the most recent in a series of orders won in the Middle East by Northern Ireland companies who, as a result of an IDB initiative, exhibited at the Hotel Show in Dubai in April this year, which solely exhibited Madini (Made And Designed In Northern Ireland) products.

Sir Reg Empey, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Industry said: "This is great news for the management and employees at Liddell and a tremendous boost for the Madini Hotel Works marketing campaign to increase sales of Northern Ireland products to the hotel industry throughout the buoyant Gulf marketplace.

Commenting on the order, Mr Barry Simms, Liddell Export Manager, said: "This very significant order will consolidate our position as a leading supplier of linens to leading hotel groups in the Middle East.

"Over the past six months, Liddell has also secured orders in the Middle East from the seven star Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai and from Qatar Airways. We are delighted to be part of the Madini campaign and were impressed in particular by the high quality of visitors attracted by the excellent stand developed by Trade International for the Hotel Show in Dubai," he added.

Liddell is among 23 companies who are involved in the Madini Hotel Works branded marketing campaign in the Middle East. Madini is a strategic initiative that has been developed by the Trade International department of the IDB to assist local companies to secure business from the fast growing hotel and luxury apartment sector particularly in the Arabian Gulf. (AMcE)