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Know Your Company
(Editor's Note: This column is to acquaint the employees of Adams-Millis Corporation with the various
divisions of the company through a look at its individual plants and departments. One plant or special ser
vice will be profiled in each of the future issues of the AMCO NEWS.)
In 1904, John Hampton Adams and James Henry
Millis, associates in the High Point Overall Company,
organized the High Point Hosiery Mill. This plant,
which was begun with the investments of fourteen men
and had an average employment of around 125, was
the beginning of one of the world's largest hosiery
manufacturers which today employs over 2,000
persons.
The next step in the growth of the Adams-Millis
Corporation was the o r g a n i z a t i o n of the Piedmont
Hosiery Mills Company (now known as Plant #1)
around 1912. At the time this plant was constructed,,
it was the largest mill in the city of High Point.’
Within the next few years, the Kernersville Knitting
Company and the Pointer Hosiery Company we re
added to the group. In 1928, Mr. Adams (as president
and active head of all of the associated industries)
and his associates arranged for the merger of all of
the hosiery interests under one charter, resulting in
the Adams-Millis Corporation; and it was listed on
the New York Stock Exchange that year.
Adams-Millis Corporation entered the full-
fashioned field in the late 1920's with the construction
of the plant (known as #7) at English and Pine Streets
in High Point. In recent years, seamless stockings
and panty hose have replaced the manufacture of full-
fashioned hosiery there.
In 1963, Adams-Millis pu rcha s ed the physical
assets of the Granite Hosiery Company of MountAiry,
N. C., said to be the largest manufacturer of boys'
hosiery in the country. A new finishing plant and
warehousing facility, incorporating the most advanced
inventory control and materials handling system in
the industry, was constructed in 1965 in Kernersville,
N. C. This new plant and warehouse were dedicated
and named in honor of Mr. J. Ed Millis, an original
stockholder, son of the founder, and past president
and chairman of the board of Adams-Millis Corpo
ration. Adams-Millis expanded to Hickory, N. C. in
1965, when it acquired the Knit-Sox Knitting Mills
there, and consolidated it with the Whisnant Hosiery
Mills when it was acquired in 1970.
The year 1968 was one of big changes in the tra
ditional operation of Adams-Millis. A new women's
hosiery plant was started halfway across the country
in Edmond, Oklahoma, and the TexElastic Corporation
was purchased in that year also. The Adams-Millis
Texturing and Dyeing plant, a division of TexElastic
Corporation, opened in 1972. Completion of the new
corporate office building on Elm Street in High Point
took place in 1972.
Adams-Millis Corporation has grown steadily
from its beginnings in the old High Point Hosiery
Mill and today is comprised of the following plants:
Plant #1 - English Road, High Point, N. C.
(Piedmont Hosiery Mill)
Plant #2 - Mount Airy, N. C.
(Granite Hosiery Co.)
Plant #3 - Kernersville, N. C.
(J. Ed Millis Plant)
Plant #4 - Kernersville, N. C.
(Kernersville Knitting Co.)
Plant #6 - Hickory, N. C.
(Knit-Sox/Whisnant Mills)
Plant #7 - English Road, High Point, N. C.
Plant #12/#19 - Edmond, Oklahoma
Plant #20 - Archdale, N. C.
(TexElastic Corporation)
Plant #21 - Elm Street, High Point, N. C.
(A-M Texturing)
Plant #22 - Raeford, N. C.
(TexElastic Corporation)
Adams-Millis Corporation is much more than the
single department in which an individual works. It is
a dynamic, growing organization with a bright future
and a distinguished history. Adams-Millis Corpora
tion is the result of the efforts of thousands of people
over the last three quarters of a century audits
future depends on those who are associated with it
today.
Adams-Millis Plant #1 is located at 400 English
Road, High Point, N. C. It has been in operation for
about 65 years.