Western Isles company Harris Tweed Hebrides has come out in favour of the campaign to keep the UK in the European Union.
Chief Executive Ian Angus Mackenzie said it would be “remiss” for a firm so heavily dependent on exporting its products not to speak up.
The award-winning business provides employment for more than 200 people in the Western Isles.
It exports more than three-quarters of its output, with the vast majority either selling through EU markets or transiting through EU ports en route elsewhere.
Germany, France and Italy are all important markets for the fabric and Mr Mackenzie insisted it was extremely important to be able to sell into one of the world’s biggest free trade areas without additional costs, tariff barriers or “other bureaucratic obstructions”.
He claimed there was “absolutely no guarantee” those conditions could be retained outside the EU.
And he explained: “Eventually, there may be new trade agreements, but it seems unlikely that our current partners would be in any hurry to offer us the kind of arrangements which currently exist.
“At the very least, there would be a period of great uncertainty from which British exports would inevitably suffer.
“People will reach their individual decisions for many different reasons, and we respect that.
“However, it would be remiss for a company which is so heavily dependent on exporting not to put forward the positive case for remaining within the EU, when local livelihoods may depend upon it.”
Harris Tweed Hebrides chairman and former trade minister, Brian Wilson, pointed to employees’ rights at work, built up over many years and “underpinned by EU directives”.
He added: “These rights have been resisted at every turn by the people now leading the Brexit campaign and would be immediately vulnerable if they were to succeed.
“We are also part of a community which has benefited hugely from investment in infrastructure, generated by EU policies and its commitment to the peripheral areas of Europe.
“Like every other business in the Western Isles, we benefit day and daily from that investment and do not wish to turn our backs on it now.”