Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 23, 1993 TAG: 9302230053
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HILLSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
BURLINGTON TO REOPEN PART OF PLANT
To meet a surging demand for denim, Burlington Industries is reopening part of its carpet plant and hiring 75 employees for a denim-weaving operation.The 300 Burlington workers who lost their jobs when the Hillsville carpet plant closed in June will have first consideration in the hiring for the new operation, the Greensboro, N.C., company said Monday.
Expected to be in full operation by September, the reopened weave plant will run on a continuous schedule seven days a week. Looms are to be installed during the next several months. The Hillsville plant has been for sale since it closed.
Probably "a good half" of the 300 former Burlington workers have found other jobs, said Jerry Frye of the Virginia Employment Commission office in Galax. Many of them found work at apparel plants in Mount Airy and other North Carolina locations, he said.
But the company should have little difficulty finding 75 employees for the new operation, Frye said. Carroll County had 6.9 percent unemployment in December, the last month recorded.
The plant closing came during Burlington's consolidation of its Lees Carpets Division, which added 100 jobs at the carpets plant at Glasgow.
The Hillsville project is part of a major $70-million capacity expansion program Burlington plans for its denim, mens' wear, Klopman Fabrics and Madison Yard Co. divisions. The investment is expected to raise capacity of these divisions by more than 10 percent by 1995, the company said.
Burlington did not break down the amount of investment for each division, but the company said its expenditures will start this spring and extend over two years.
The company's plants at Hurt, Altavista and Halifax are part of the expansion.
Burlington makes about 60 styles of denim that are sold to such jeans and jacket manufacturers as Calvin Klein, Levi Strauss, Wrangler and Lee.
Burlington is in the fortunate position of manufacturing specialty products that other companies are not making, according to Bryant Haskins, a spokesman at the Greensboro headquarters.