ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 13, 1996 TAG: 9603140009
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER AND ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITERS
Diversified Apparel Inc., a Pulaski clothing manufacturer, this week became the latest of a series of the region's apparel and textile companies to announce layoffs. The company said it will close its plant here in about two months, idling some 135 workers.
The company, which opened its Pulaski plant in early 1989, is scheduled to close it May 11 although some employees may be kept until May 25, said Isodore Feldman, chairman of the board of Isfeld Corp., the company's New York parent.
The closure is linked to the purchase by Her Majesty Industries Corp. of Mauldin, S.C., of another Isfeld subsidiary, Sparkle Sportswear Inc. Diversified Apparel is a manufacturer and distributor of children's clothing for Sparkle.
Employees at the Pulaski plant were told this week that the closing would take place in about 60 days.
Diversified Apparel has one other Virginia plant, at Council in southern Buchanan County. That year-old, 24,000-square-foot plant, with about 130 employees, is expected to continue operating.
The Pulaski plant is in an 80,000-square-foot building on a 10-acre site at 1201 E. Main St., purchased from Lee Jeans after it ended its operations there.
It has set new operating hours for its remaining time open, 6:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 6:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Friday.
Pulaski Town Manager Tom Combiths said Tuesday the town expects to work with county officials to find another tenant.
C.E. Hughes, a coordinator at the Radford office of the Virginia Employment Commission, will meet with employees at the Pulaski plant this morning. to outline some of those options, such as retraining and seeking other jobs.
Huber said the locality needs to find out if the closing is related to the use of foreign labor. If so, more benefits such as longer unemployment coverage and financial assistance for education might be available under the Trade Readjustment Act.
Her Majesty Industries, the new owner, makes children's sleep and swim wear and women's golf and tennis clothing. "The acquisition of the Sparkle business [of children's sportswear] will allow us to achieve further production efficiencies, expand our total line offerings, and provide the basis for new, additional product lines," said Her Majesty Industries Chairman Jeffrey Koffman.
The Diversified Apparel closing is among a growing number of garment facilities shutting down in Virginia and elsewhere.
Sara Lee Corp., which employed 3,000 people in the Martinsville area two years ago at eight locations, has announced that it will lay off the remaining 420 when it closes its last manufacturing facility there May 15.
It also is closing its L'eggs Products facility in Salem, idling 132 employees who worked in the hosiery distribution center.
Dye Tex Ltd. of New Jersey has halted fabric drying operations at its Roanoke plant.
Marjorie Norton, a Virginia Tech professor who specializes in textile economics, said the apparel industry is weathering a general slump pressuring many clothing manufacturers.
Norton said the clothing industry is having trouble holding on to its labor force because its jobs are relatively low-paying and its workers are aging.
Competition from foreign manufacturers may be caused by the soft clothing market more than being a cause of the slump, said Allison Wolf of the American Apparel Manufacturing Association.
Low-cost imports are challenging domestically-made garments. Yet many domestic clothing manufacturers are also "outsourcing" contract business to industries in Asia to save money, Wolf said.
The American apparel industry has lost more than 100,000 jobs in the last year, Wolf said. "It's part of a cycle. We're going through a contraction phase.''
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines KEYWORDS: JOBCHEKby CNB