The timeline of change for county textile industry

Part 3 – July 9, 2009

This list of closings or layoffs, provided by the Forest City office of the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina, includes triple digit job losses in the textile industry in Rutherford County. Included is the reason for the job losses and whether the job losses were caused by a layoff or a closing.

May 1991: Tultex Corp., Spindale, textiles, 150 jobs, transfer operations, closing.
August 1992: Absorba Inc., Forest City, apparel, 229, economic slump, closing.
July 1995: New Cherokee Corp., Spindale, yarn manufacturing, 150, ceased manufacturing, layoff.
December 1995: Galey & Lord Industries, Caroleen, textile mill, 200, plant modernization, closing.
October 1996: Burlington Industries, Forest City, worsted yarn, 250, phasing out operations- NAFTA, layoff.
October 1998: New Cherokee Corp., Spindale, fabrics, 150, consolidation, closing.
April 1999: Cone Mills Corp., Forest City, denim yarn, 438, restructuring, layoff.
July 1999: Stonecutter Textiles, Spindale, textile, 700, import competition, closing.
July 1999: Burlington Industries Inc., Forest City, textiles, 440, import competition, closing.
October 1999: Cone Mills Corp., three county plants, Cliffside, denim, 130, reduced denim demand, layoff.
May 2000: Tanner Cos., Rutherfordton, apparel, 200, foreign competition, closing, ,
August 2001: Cone Mills (Haynes/Florence), four plants, Cliffside and Henrietta, denim, 392, reorganization, layoff. ,
September 2001: Galey & Lord, Caroleen, yarn spinning, 165, restructuring, closing.
December 2003: Cone Mills Corp. (Haynes), Henrietta, denim, 250, foreign competition, closing.
December 2003: Cone Mills Corp. (Cliffside Finishing), Cliffside, denim, 115, foreign competi-tion, closing.
December 2003: Cone Mills Corp., Cliffside, denim, 260, foreign competition, layoff.
January 2004: Parkdale America, Caroleen, cotton yarns, 100, import competition, closing.
February 2004: National Textiles LLC, Forest City, dyeing, finishing, 106, declining demand, lay- off.
December 2004: Manual Woodworkers and Spindale Weavers, Spindale, Jacquard textiles, 153, relocation, closing.
June 2005: International Textile Group (Cone Cliffside denim), Jacquard fabrics, 220, import competition, layoff:
September 2005: Mastercraft Fabrics, Spindale, fabric manufacturing, 115, import competition, layoff.
November 2005: Cone Denim (Cliffside), Cliffside, denim plant, 200, declining demand, closing.
December 2005: International Textile Group (Cone Jacquard), Cliffside, Jacquard fabrics, 210, import competition, closing.
December 2005: Dan River Inc., Harris, textile finishing, 130, no reason stated, closing.
September 2008: Hanesbrands Inc., Forest City, knit fabric, 470, consolidation, closing.

(Counting job losses in double digits, 22 closings and 13 layoffs were reported on the ESC list. The ESC states that the data are not comprehensive and are derived from newspapers accounts and from information supplied to the ESC by the companies experiencing layoffs or closings.)

Reprinted with permission from The Daily Courier. Copyright owned by The Daily Courier.