Not content with a shrinking manufacturing skills base, fashion firm David Nieper is investing in developing a workforce for the future.

As many manufacturing companies began to shift production offshore, vast regions of the country were left with a generation of workers equipped with remarkable skills that they could no longer put to good use.

Clothes manufacturing firm David Nieper, based in Alfreton, Derbyshire, employs a lot of those skilled textiles workers left over from Britain’s strong manufacturing base. But MD Christopher Nieper says this pool of skills won’t always be there.