Andy McCarter is enjoying his new role as head of Fruit of the Loom's European manufacturing operations, but he would clearly have preferred to have been appointed under different circumstances.

Just a couple of weeks ago his two brothers, Willie and John left the company following a bitter dispute with the group's senior US executives.

Over those difficult months, the three men, who still remain close, must have recalled the advice of their late father who repeatedly told them "there must be easier ways of making a living".

Mr McCarter admits it was a very trying time. "The family remains united regardless of the events. But it's a period of my life that I would be very happy never to relive," he says.

"The position now is that it's over and everbody has to move on and that's really what we are in the process of doing. We are trying to get everybody back to normal in the business and to get them focused on business issues."

It is widely acknowledged that Andy McCarter would not have stayed with Fruit of the Loom unless the group acted honourably in severing its links with his brothers. His decision to take overall responsibility for its Irish operations has helped to soften the blow to the workforce and offers some hope for the group's long-term Commitment to the Inishowen area.

"One of the factors in my decision to stay with the company was that I do have a long background here. I do understand and am very interested in local issues here. I was quite taken aback by the many private offerings of support I received from members of the workforce at that time who saw my staying on as a gesture of continuity."

The middle child of the three brothers, Andy has always kept a low profile preferring to let Willie take the spotlight. "We used to joke that John and I were the backroom boys while Willie was the figurehead for the company for 25 years and it was a relationship that worked very well."

A chemical engineer, Andy McCarter has always been associated with the production side of the family business WP McCarter & Sons and laterally Fruit of the Loom in Ireland.

Despite his father's reservations, he returned to the family business in 1977 having worked for five years with Du Pont in the US. At that time the business was solely manufacturing underwear and other apparel for companies such as Dunnes Stores, Adidas and Levi, but was finding it increasingly difficult to remain competitive.

Amid talk of the creation of a single European market at that time, the McCarters decided they needed to bring an international investor on board to save the business. They drew up a "hit list" of 20 clothing companies mainly in the US, and Andy was dispatched to "knock on doors".

Fruit of the Loom, he says, was one of those they targeted, and had just been taken over by its current chairman and chief operating officer, Mr Bill Farley. The new owner wanted to rapidly grow the company and was already looking for opportunities to expand into Europe.

"It was a stroke of luck. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time," he says. "From that meeting we hit it off and within three weeks three senior officers came to Buncrana to see what we were doing and eventually agreed a deal in 1987 which led to Fruit of the Loom's major investment in this area."

The alliance started out as a joint venture, but Fruit of the Loom eventually bought out the family's interests over a phased period to allow it to expand at a more rapid pace.

"It also opted, rightly or wrongly, to keep the existing management team in place and has never relocated any of its senior US management here," Mr McCarter says.

In more than 11 years, Fruit of the Loom has invested millions of pounds in the picturesque Inishowen penninsula. Its seven sewing plants extend from Buncrana to Malin Head and are supplied by two knitting and dyeing plants in Derry which together employ 3,500 people. Today it is one of the biggest employers in Ireland.

Operating in the notoriously tough "rag trade" the competitive pressures that beset the McCarter family firm have become more intense over the years with retailers increasingly sourcing cheaper goods from relatively lower cost locations.

Andy McCarter agrees that if Fruit of the Loom was to make a similar investment now, it probably wouldn't chose Ireland.

The fact that everybody knows this continually raises questions about the long-term future for the Irish workforce. These fears were considerably heightened by the removal of three of the key directors who were seen to be the backbone of the business.

McCarter is very realistic about the company's prospects but insists that he believes Fruit of the Loom is still firmly committed to Ireland.

The Irish factories manufacture Tshirt, sweatshirts and other leisure apparel for the European market in tandem with a similar operation in Morocco. Set up in 1993, the relatively cheaper Moroccan base has tended to be viewed as a threat to the Irish workforce, particularly those employed in the lower-margin T-shirt production.

McCarter takes a more positive view though, and suggests that far from taking work from Donegal, the Moroccan plant has in fact boosted some parts of the Irish business.

"It has allowed Fruit of the Loom to compete in the low-cost high volume Tshirt end of the market. If we hadn't taken the decision to establish the Moroccan sewing plant then I think we would have lost that whole side of the business.

"We save money on labour because sewing costs in Morocco are much lower but some of those savings are offset by the high cost of freighting the fabric there and bringing it back to be distributed from Germany. That works very well for T-shirts because the savings on labour far outweigh the cost of freighting but the same kind of cost savings cannot be realised on sweatshirts and fleece products."

At the moment T-shirt's account for 70 per cent of Fruit of the Loom's Irish manufacturing activities, with the rest focused on fleece garments. McCarter stresses that while the fleece end of its production has been consistently growing, T-shirt production will always come under pressure from cheaper locations. But the company will still ultimately be forced to keep some of its t-shirt production in Ireland.

While Morocco reduces costs, he said, there are also disadvantages to operating there because of less flexibility to respond to changes in the market. "For that reason I believe there will always be some element of T-shirt sewing in Ireland that can be turned on to respond to market demands."

He explains that fleece production lends itself more to automation and as such is not subject to the same competitive pressures. As Fruit of the Loom has invested substantially in this end of the business he believes it remains secure.

"The front end manufacturing operations are first class and highly competitive and as long as we can keep it that way there is no reason to fear that it will close or that Fruit of the Loom will pull out," McCarter says.

He says he feels a great responsibility to the local community to ensure its continued success.

"I take a great deal of pride in the operation that we have built up here and that's why I encourage everyone who's employed by the company in Europe to look positively at what we have done. This has been a large part of my life. I live in the area and I am friendly with a great number of people in the community. I feel a great responsibility for the business and I hope that as we go through difficult times I can contribute in the role that I now have in securing the best long-term future for the Derry and Donegal operations."