Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 8, 1995 TAG: 9501060061
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Business headlines were dominated by announcements of job layoffs at several plants and an union fight at Martinsville's Tultex Corp. - a battle that followed a large reduction in the company's workforce.
Dean Riggs, vice-president of operations for Greensboro, N.C.-based Sara Lee Knit Products, said excess inventory and increased worldwide competition forced several rounds of job layoffs that had a substantial impact on Sara Lee workers in Martinsville and Gretna.
Sara Lee laid off more than 1,000 workers in southside Virginia in 1994.
But with a dreary forecast outlined early in 1994, the company performed up to those expectations, he said.
"We knew what we faced," Riggs said.
Ed Johnson, director of Johnson Redbook Service in New York City and an industry analyst, said textile earnings in the U.S. are expected to climb by 24 percent this year, compared to an 11 percent increase in 1994 and a 1.5 percent decrease in 1993.
Johnson said the optimistic picture could be clouded by pending approval of higher fiber costs industry-wide.
Riggs said the 1995 forecast has another kicker - the Congressional approval of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT.
Riggs said that while the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has proven positive for Sara Lee because of creation of additional foreign markets and more exported products, GATT could tell a different story.
"It could really change how we do things by creating much more foreign competition," he said.
At several of its plant locations, Sara Lee is now using a new management approach - work teams - to try and save jobs and reduce excess inventory as global competition grows.
The team approach replaces individual, piece-rate, assembly-line sewing and it involves a group of workers performing various tasks.
Riggs said the teams - which are given the discretion to make such decisions as methods of work and assignment of members to different tasks - have increased organizational effectiveness.
And with one of the largest textile worker pools in the nation located in Southside and Southwest Virginia, it's essential that jobs be maintained and more of them created, said Frank Novakowski, executive director of Henry County's Patrick Henry Development Council, an economic development agency.
The development council - working with private organization and existing industries like Sara Lee - lured several niche businesses to the Martinsville area.
The companies will operate out of plants and shell buildings that were left vacant due to industry downsizing.
Innovative Yarns - a company that manufactures unique fibers for apparel manufacturers - is moving its operations from Eden, N.C. to a plant formerly used by Sara Lee in Martinsville.
Novakowski said economic development officials will be working to do more of the same thing in 1995.
"What we want is to help textile companies continue to modernize," he said. "In that industry, there has to be constant modernization. And, since this area still has and excellent core of workers and management, that's a key."
by CNB