BIG STORM KNOCKS OUT SOUTHEAST TEXTILE PLANTS
Byline: Ray Clune
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The first winter blast of 1996 iced textile and apparel operations in the southeast over the weekend — stopping plants, delaying shifts, or forcing them to work at reduced capacities.
“We didn’t get a lot of snow, but it was on top of ice,” said Doug Stevens, corporate controller at Delta Woodside Industries in Greenville, S.C. “All of our plants upstate, including Delta Mills spinning and weaving plants and a Stevcoknit spinning plant, were shut down for the first shift today [Monday], and we’re hoping to have them open by second shift this afternoon.”
Stevens said that in addition Delta Woodside’s sewing plants in Tennessee had been temporarily shut down by the storm.
Burlington Industries ran into more problems with plants in various southeastern states — particularly in Virginia, where some areas reported accumulations of more than 30 inches of snow.
“In Virginia and Tennessee, we’ve got plants closed today [Monday], and we hope to have them open tomorrow,” said a Burlington spokesman. “Our plant in Hurt, Va., got about three feet of snow, and they’re not operating today. They hope to be open tomorrow, but they’re not sure about that. “Plants in lower Virginia near the North Carolina line, like Clarksville, Halifax, et cetera, are open, but they’re operating at less than half capacity because they could only get a certain number of people in to work,” the spokesman said.
Burlington’s denim operations in Mooresville, N.C., were also idled for several shifts on Sunday night and Monday morning.
Cone Mills Corp., based in Greensboro, N.C., had a number of plants down with canceled shifts and/or delayed openings, and the company closed its corporate offices on Monday due to hazardous driving conditions, according to a spokeswoman.
A spokeswoman for Sara Lee Knit Products, based in Winston-Salem, N.C., reported a number of plants closed on Sunday.
“It did have an impact on us,” she said. “We leave it up to the local plant management to make those decisions, and if they determine that conditions are so severe that the majority of the work force can’t get in, then they just decide to close the plant.”
Other companies announcing closings or delays in Piedmont North Carolina included Crompton & Knowles, Culp Inc., Dixie Yarns, Dominion Yarns, Galey & Lord, Gerber Children’s Wear, Rauch Industries, Rowan Knitting Mills, Wiscassett Mills and Woonsocket Spinning Co.