Coats Viyella, which employs more than 2,000 people in Northern Ireland, is planning a £50 million sterling restructuring of its clothing, home furnishings and thread divisions following a 6.4 per cent decline in 1995 profits before exceptional charges to £143 million.

The restructuring will involve extensive job losses among the group's 74,000 workforce as well as write offs on old machinery and there will be exceptional spending on new equipment.

Although details of job losses will only be released after employees have been informed over the next few weeks, Coats Viyella indicated most of the cutbacks will be in 50 plants outside the UK. As such, the group's Northern Ireland activities may be relatively unscathed by the restructuring.