Former Members of Coats Pension Plan

Coats Pension Plan was closed to new joiners on 1 May 2014. The Plan closed to all future accrual of benefits for employee members at 30 June 2016. Active employees may now pay into a DC (defined contribution) scheme. For more information on the DC scheme, please click here.

Coats Pension Plan commenced on 1 January 1988 under the name of the Coats Viyella Pension Plan. This followed the merger of 3 major UK textile companies in 1986 – Coats Patons plc, Vantona Viyella plc and the Nottingham Manufacturing Company plc. When introduced, the Plan was open to most employees of the newly formed Coats Viyella plc, the main exclusions being part-timers and temporary workers.

Before 1988, pension arrangements for the different groups of companies varied substantially. The introduction of the Plan meant that those employees eligible to join were all entitled to the same level of benefit for future service. Members of many previous arrangements were given a ‘guarantee’ that when benefits became payable from the Plan, those benefits would be no less than their benefit entitlement if their old scheme had continued in force.

Since 1988, other major companies have been brought into the Group – Tootal, Corah, Atkins, Barbour Threads – to name but a few.

For more information about the history of Coats, please click here. Please note you will need to be able to view PDF files to read this document. Please click on our Useful Downloads section for more information.