A luxury Scottish Borders cashmere knitwear brand Hawico plans to expand after securing funding to invest in new equipment and move into new products. Hawico manufactures cashmere garments for retail at its own stores around the world. It plans to use funding of around £250,000 from HSBC, provided in the form of an equipment finance loan, to purchase state-of-the-art machines which are capable of creating whole knitted garments

The company has acquired whole garment machines from Shima Seiki to speed up production, reduce material waste and experiment with new patterns as it looks to expand product ranges

Family-owned Hawico can trace its history back to 1874, when the Hawick Hosiery Company was established and opened its mill on the town’s Duke Street. Today, it continues to make its knitwear at the same location, where the outer structure of the building remains the same. It sells its cashmere in its 13 stores, as well as online. The stores are located in Scotland, England, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the US and Japan.