Planemike,
See above. Cyril Lord was enticed by the South African Government to set up factories in East London.
Apart from carpets, he produced a wide range of textiles and the deal in SA was to initially set up poplin production. He stripped 3 of his Lancashire textile factories of their machines and shipped them to East London. He also offered workers the chance to emigrate - and there were many more on short term set up visits. He also intended to set up carpet manufacture and the flights were all chartered by the carpet company - possibly for tax or stealth purposes (the stripping of the Lancashire factories had raised much anger in the unions).
South African produced poplin didn't sell as well as expected and the operation was handed back some years later to the SA Government. The SA carpet factory never materialised.