Harris Tweed Hebrides, based at Shawbost on the Isle of Lewis, has been included in a high-powered campaign to attract Russia’s big spenders to top-end British consumer products.

The award-winning company, which accounted for 95 per cent of Harris Tweed production last year, will participate in next week’s ground-breaking event in Moscow, promoted by UKTI, the government’s trade and investment organisation. UK Showcase will feature 20 of of Britain’s leading producers of luxury goods.

HTH chairman and former UK Trade Minister, Brian Wilson, will take part in a press conference at the British Embassy in Moscow next Tuesday to launch the event.

Mr Wilson said: “It is great for Harris Tweed Hebrides to be acknowledged as one of Britain’s leading luxury brands. We are in superb company in Moscow and it is a golden opportunity to carve out a niche in the Russian market.

“Russia ticks all the boxes for Harris Tweed. The climate is right for it as a fashion fabric. There is a respect for quality and heritage. And there are a lot of people who now have money to spend”.

Other famous Scottish names invited to participate are Holland and Sherry, Johnston of Elgin, and coat-makers, Mackintosh. Companies from elsewhere in the UK include Linley, the furniture design house, Dovecot Tapestries, royal glove-makers Cornelia James, and Colefax and Fowler, the wallpaper brand.

The editor of Moscow’s leading luxury goods magazine, Robb’s Report, has already visited the Shawbost mill and was hugely impressed by what he saw. Mark Hogarth, creative director of HTH, said: “The article will appear after the Moscow event and will be an ideal follow-on to the interest we expect to stimulate. There is a huge potential market for both the tweed itself and also for the products made from it.

“The exposure that we have had over the past few weeks in London, New York and Paris, with several leading designers using Harris Tweed from Shawbost, will also help to set the scene”.

Ron Archibald, head of UKTI Tradeshows, said: “From London to the Isle of Lewis, the UK is renowned for companies producing world class consumer goods. Many Russian consumers are now looking beyond the obvious labels and we are sure that the companies will find a ready audience in this discerning luxury market”..

Meanwhile, Ian Angus Mackenzie, chief executive of the company, said that orders this year are “well ahead of the same time last year” with increased demand from the United States, where Harris Tweed Hebrides have been making a marketing push, as well as big orders from Germany and Japan.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE PHONE BRIAN WILSON 0N 01851-672274 or IAN ANGUS MACKENZIE ON 01851-702862