HE’S one of Britain’s most famous business gurus and he’s coming to Hawick.

Lord Digby Jones is making a return to our television screens this week with the first of three business troubleshooting programmes.

And next week he will be in the Borders as he attempts to provide a pattern of success for Hawick Knitwear.

The former director-general of the CBI will front the BBC2 series Digby Jones’ New Industrial Revolution in which he aims to give a helping hand to British businesses.

Over the course of three hour-long programmes, the former trade minister will examine a trio of firms and apply his own expertise to improve their fortunes.

The BBC said his aim is to “not only improve each company’s fortunes but over the course of the series try to craft a new blueprint for British manufacturing success”.

Lord Jones said: “It is vital that a wider audience understands how business ticks, especially smaller businesses where from will come so much of the growth and employment in our economy over the next few years.” Jones spent months working with three firms, which also includes Hereford Furniture, to come up with ideas for what they could do differently before making his recommendations.

He added: “I think in all three companies I was a force for good - a force for change by making them look in the mirror and analyse what they were doing.

“Hawick is making something the world wants. The issue is, do they go backwards by standing still or forward by taking a few risks?” Hawick Knitwear was once part of the Lyle & Scott stable which was founded in 1874.

It is one of the few survivors of a cashmere and lambswool industry in the town which at its height employed 4,000 people in 30 mills.

When the original Troubleshooter television show was screened with Sir John Harvey-Jones in the 1990s it attracted an audience of three million.

And it is hoped that the new Thursday night show will be as popular.

Hawick Knitwear’s co-owner and managing director, Benny Hartop, doesn’t believe Jones has spotted anything the company wasn’t already looking at, but he has prompted it to change its priorities.

Mr Hartrop said: “He said to us, you need to focus on China and I think he has probably brought forward our plans there by about 18 months. But the UK is still our number one market and there is a huge amount of untapped potential there.” Hawick Knitwear has recently won new orders from customers including Marks & Spencer.

And the recent success for the company has seen them train 30 apprentices over the past three years.

The Hawick Knitwear episode of Digby Jones’ New Industrial Revolution will be screened on Thursday, April 17, on BBC 2 at 8pm.