On this week’s Business Matters, Ciaran O’Donnell’s guest is former managing director of Fruit of the Loom and former Chair of the International Fund For Ireland, Willie McCarter, who now works as an independent advisor.
Four days after graduating from Trinity College in Economics and Political Science in 1969, he began his masters degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Willie came home in 1971 to work in the family’s underwear-making business, WP McCarter, and the following year, he became managing director at the age of 25 following the death of his uncle, Willie.
McCarters signed a deal with Fruit of the Loom in 1987 and it became a major employer in Donegal and Derry during a 20 year period. At full capacity, Fruit of the Loom employed 3,000 people and produced one million t-shirts and 400,000 sweatshirts per week.
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