Belfast Briefing: Ulster Carpets takes the floor at host of luxury hotels

The Burj al-Arab in Dubai, Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, the George V in Paris and the Ritz in London could all feature on your wish list of holiday destinations at this time of the year.

Portadown in Co Armagh probably does not share the same appeal.

But there is more than a little thread of Portadown – so to speak – running through all of these luxury hotels. They are just a small number of the ever-growing collection of spectacular hotels across the globe that feature some of the finest work of a local company, Ulster Carpets.

The family-owned business, which has been around for more than 78 years, is a market leader in carpet manufacturing.

All of its Axminster and Wilton manufacturing is based at its Co Armagh headquarters where about 400 people are employed.

In total, Ulster Carpets has a workforce of 600 people including divisions in Yorkshire, Denmark and the United States.

The company also manufacturers carpets for the residential sector but it is chiefly an export-orientated business with more than 70 per cent of its sales going outside the UK.

This focus on exports, managing director Nick Coburn says, is why the family business – established by his grandfather George Walter Wilson in 1938 – is a success today.

If Ulster Carpets had not gone after new markets – and on occasion learned from its mistakes – it might have been the one getting walked over by competitors when it came to landing some of the world’s top hotel chains as customers.

Coburn is keen to encourage other companies in the North to look outside both Northern Ireland and also perhaps the UK for new markets to sell into, particularly following the uncertainty created as a result of the UK’s Brexit vote.

Overseas markets

“For us the world is our market. We take the view that there are always going to be new challenges every week and we have to look beyond what we cannot control.

“We developed new markets overseas because we had to. We focus on our strengths, our dedication to quality, our generations of skilled workers and the strong ethos that we have throughout our business,” says Coburn. “And we have developed technology that is unique to us to create superior carpets.”

Ulster Carpet’s in-house engineers developed what it calls “psylo” waving technology, which effectively replaced the jacquard loom after nearly two centuries. The award-winning technology enables designers to use an increased number of colours without the need for a repeating pattern. That, according to the company, “creates unprecedented depth and texture of design”.

Two years ago, Ulster Carpets also committed to a £30 million modernisation and expansion programme at its Portadown HQ. Coburn believes the seven-year project will help position the company to win further export business.

He has just been appointed as the new president of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and he is keen to share what he has learned from his experiences of 39 years in business with other firms.

“I started off as a lab assistant in Ulster Carpets so I have been through all levels,” Coburn recalls. “Then I had to go to the United States and go to American hotel groups to sell them this idea of a Northern Ireland company manufacturing carpets for them, so I know exactly what it takes to have to go out there and sell your product.

Indigenous identity

“But if we can do it in Ulster Carpets and we can make our way in the world, I believe every other company in Northern Ireland can do it. We are just indigenous folk, there is nothing special about us,” he says.

Coburn believes some local firms need a little confidence boost to get them started and he is more than happy to be Northern Ireland’s “new export coach” during his term as chamber president.

“There are already a great many companies in Northern Ireland who are world leaders in their field but there could be more,” he says. “We just need to get businesses to have the confidence to go out there and do it.

“We were very dependent on the public sector in the past here and that might have shaped our approach, but we need to get our entrepreneurial spirit back. We need to create a new culture because Northern Ireland has a huge amount going for it.”