Let's stick together, urges Burberry chief

Burberry employs 800 workers in Castleford and Keighley and is moving to a new state-of-the-art manufacturing and weaving facility in Leeds.

Halifax-born CEO Christopher Bailey told staff that the business would be “stronger and more prosperous” inside the EU.​

“As a business, we firmly believe that Britain would be stronger and more prosperous if we remain in the EU,” he said.

“Burberry is a proudly British company. Our head office is in London and we have a long history of manufacturing our heritage products in Yorkshire. We also recently announced investment in a new weaving and manufacturing site in Leeds, creating new jobs and enabling us to make more products here in the UK.

“Whilst our roots are firmly British, our outlook is global. We have stores, offices, customers and employees all over the world and it is thanks to our strong position in Europe that Burberry, along with a great number of other British companies, has been able to grow over recent decades.”

He said that one of the main advantages of remaining in the EU from the company’s perspective is free trade.

“The EU allows the free movement of goods and services across national borders,” he said.

Much of Burberry’s success is down to the skilled workers who stitch 5,000 heritage trench coats a week at the group’s factory in Castleford.

Their stitching skills take a year to hone and Burberry is hoping to persuade all 800 workers in Castleford and Keighley, where the gabardine fabric is woven, to move to the new facility in Leeds.