Fruit of the Loom is the one of the largest manufacturing employers in Ireland, with about 3,500 employees working in its plants in Donegal and Derry. McCarter Group was the original name of the company and, up until 1987, it was solely controlled by members of the McCarter family. Although a large company at that stage, it was not regarded as a major clothing manufacturer internationally.
The first signs of new growth was the concluding of a contract with Adidas in 1986. After that, a five-year plan with a new means of investment was drawn up by Mr Willie McCarter and his two brothers John and Andrew.
They believed that sustainable growth could only come through a partnership, which would provide capital investment and ideas.
Following a series of meetings with the IDA, Mr Andrew McCarter attended a meeting with a company called Fruit of the Loom in south Kentucky in June 1986.
The meetings were said to be "positive" and, in February 1987, a deal was signed between the McCarters and Fruit of the Loom. The deal involved Fruit of the Loom paying an unspecified amount to become majority shareholders, while McCarters would become sole suppliers to the group.
In the first year, £18.5 million was invested in Donegal to expand and upgrade plant and machinery and to retrain staff.
At that time, Mr Willie McCarter described his relationship with the American representatives of Fruit of the Loom as "seeing eye to eye, but very informal".
He said he had a "close working relationship with them" but they still "call the shots".
There are now a total of seven plants in Donegal, with the sewing operations located at Raphoe, Templemore, Malin, Milford and Buncrana.
The plants are concentrated around the Innishowen peninsula, although workers come from all parts of the county. There are no figures available on how well the plants in Donegal and Derry perform, but the greatest challenge for management has been to keep the unit cost of each item down.
The plant in Derry, located at Campsie, is the largest mill of its kind in Europe and the fifth largest in the world. It presently employs 240 people.
The company regards Donegal and Derry as one business area, although workers do not generally move between the Donegal and Derry plants.
The IDA were said to be happy that the company decided to have several plants in Donegal, as it spread the employment opportunities "more widely".
The company has made a large investment in technology at each of the plants in recent years.
The placing of workers on a three-day week for the second half of last year was said to be caused by sudden fluctuations in the market for T-shirts and other clothing items.
