The former Levi’s factory in Dundee – which employed hundreds of people in its heyday – is being reduced to rubble.
A demolition firm has been tearing down the roof of the iconic factory this week.
The site was previously owned by Aydya, but no details have yet been confirmed on who has taken it on and what their plans are.
Aydya has been approached for comment but so far has not responded.
The factory on Dunsinane Avenue closed in 2002 but in recent years the building hosted a range of organisations including foodbanks, church groups and community groups.
Among the final tenants to leave earlier this year was Taught By Muhammad, which helps to build “an understanding between Muslims and the wider community”.
It also runs a foodbank, support cafes, school drop-ins and budget cooking classes.
CEO Faisal Hussein said: “The Lochee Community Group was the main tenant for the site, we just used to sub-let from them.
“For Taught By Muhammad, we are based at Langlands Street in a church site. We are here until the end of March. Then I’m not sure as nothing has been secured.”
Lochee Community Group has since found premises on the city’s Douglas Street.
Millions of pairs of Levi’s jeans
Levi Strauss began its 30-year association with Dundee in 1972 when it opened its first factory in Kilspindie Road on the Dunsinane Industrial Estate.
Initially employing just over 100 people in Dundee, the San Francisco-based firm expanded its operations throughout the 1970s and 1980s, including opening a temporary cutting plant at Baldovie Industrial Estate, before a move in 1982 to its plant overlooking Dunsinane Avenue and Coupar Angus Road, where all production operations were contained under one roof.
At its height in the mid-1990s, nearly 600 people worked there, and a million pairs of jeans were leaving the plant every week.
The company expanded its operations throughout Scotland, and increased its workforce by over 2,000 with new jobs at Dundee, Whitburn and Bellshill.
Dundee workforce reduced as firm eyes closure
A round of cutbacks had seen the Dundee workforce reduced to under 500 by 1999.
Later that year, Levi’s pulled the plug on its Whitburn plant and cut the workforce at Bellshill, leading to gloomy speculation about the Dundee plant’s long-term future.
The company’s American bosses blamed the problems with UK production partly on the influx of cheap Levi 501’s jeans into supermarkets.
The factory shut for good in 2002 with the loss of 462 jobs which was the result of a need to lower production costs in a “challenging economic climate”.
Staff marked their last day at the factory with champagne.
