Posted July 20, 2016
By Devin Steele (DSteele@eTextileCommunications.com)
MAIDEN, N.C. – Carolina Nonwovens, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of National Spinning Co., put a giant exclamation point on the state of the U.S. textile industry Wednesday during the grand opening of its new 92,000-square-foot facility here.
N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory joined state and local officials, the National Spinning board of directors, Carolina Nonwovens employees, customers and friends for the unveiling, which represents one of the largest builds in the industry over the last decade-plus.
“What a great day for our company,” National Spinning Chairman and CEO Jim Chesnutt, told attendees in kicking off the event. “We acquired this business in March 2012 and began operations in Lincolnton, N.C., and it became apparent very, very quickly that we liked the nonwovens business and that, likely, we needed some additional capacity.”
So the 95-year-old company began looking for an existing facility or some land to build a new one on, he said. It ended up buying 11 acres where Carolina Mills’ former J.W. Abernathy Plant once sat – about 12 miles from Lincolnton.
ISN'T THAT GRAND?
National Spinning officially opens Carolina Nonwovens’ facility
“And we had some important criteria early on,” he added. “One was it had to be somewhere close enough to our existing plant that all of our employees would have the option to come here and work without having an undue drive.”
The current workforce has been retained and 35 new jobs are being added, for a total of about 65 employees, according to the company. Facilities include nonwoven production lines and ancillary processes, with additional spaces for logistics, engineering, quality control and product design. Laroche S.A. of France) and Technoplants srl of Italy, both of whom are represented by Allertex of America, Inc., based in Cornelius, N.C., provided processing machinery.
“I want to congratulate Carolina Nonwovens and what a visionary leader you have in Jim Chesnutt,” Gov. McCrory told the audience. “I served on the board of directors for a manufacturing company in Statesville, N.C., before I was governor. I know the margins are small, I know the schedule makes a difference and I know these types of capital investments are huge decisions that can make or break a company. And one of the big decisions they made was to continue to invest in North Carolina.”
The new plant has been in production about four months, with the last of its production lines being moved from Lincolnton last week, Chesnutt said. The facility produces acoustic and thermal insulation, foam replacement and construction/industrial materials.
“We are delighted to continue serving customers, now with expanded capacity and enhanced product capability,” Plant Manager Ed Hull said in a release. Sales Director Randy Cook added, “We can now offer quicker turns, a more diverse range of products and line extension.”
National Spinning President Jim Booterbaugh said the state-of the-art plant “gives us a platform for divisional growth and further economies of scale for our entire corporation.”
National Spinning Co., founded in 1921, is an employee-owned manufacturer and distributor of yarn, nonwovens and consumer craft items, with plant locations in five North Carolina towns – Washington, Whiteville, Beulaville, Burlington and Maiden.