SECTION II
^yiew* - journal
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1982
flats Tipped To Textile Neighbors This Week
Burlington Industries' Menswear
Raeford/ Dyeing Plants are joining
TexElastic Corporation and over
1,300 other textile operations
across North Carolina in observ
ance of North Carolina Textile
gWeek October 18-24.
~ Theme of the observance is
"Textiles Tour* ng Our Lives
Totally."
Ashwell Harward, manager of
community relations, said of Bur
lington's local Qperations: "Our
celebration will include activities
for employees and their families, as
well as the community. They are
essential to the success of our
community as part of this very
important industry in North Caro
lina. We are also underscoring the
economic impact in jobs and
payrolls, and the more intangible
yet important contributions that
our people make to the life of the
community."
Plans have been finalized to have
an "Ice Cream Dipping" at both
plants for the employees. Each
employe will be given a Burlington
decal to go on their car. This is
being done in recognition of our
employes for a job well done.
Burlington is the nation's largest
manufacturer of textiles and re
lated products, with 87 plants in 10
states. The Raeford/ Dyeing Plants
Burlington Celebrates
26 Years In Raeford
by Bill Llndan
j, Burlington Industries has been
%n industrial citizen of Raeford
since 1956, with over 1,700 people
now employed.
The Dyeing Plant and the Rae
ford Plant originally constituted a
single operation, built in 1951 by
Robbins Mills to produce synthetic
yarns and fabrics.
The Raeford plants are the
largest operations of their type in
^the world. What these plants do
more than any others is produce
worsted and worsted-blend fabrics
for suiting, slacks, and uniform
markets.
It is often said that nine of every
10 U.S. military men and women
wear winter uniforms made of cloth
manufactured in Raeford. A more
conservative estimate would sug
the majority of U.S. armed
forces people are dressed in fabrics
produced here.
And closer to home, odds are
good that the high school band and
local police are clothed in Burling
ton fabrics made here, as are many
bus drivers and airline employees.
The two Raeford plants also
produce fabric designed for
^women's wear which is sold under
the Burlington "Ms." label.
The Raeford plant and Burling
ton Menswear here are among eight
manufacturing plants in the Bur
lington Menswear Division.
The company has made impor
tant commitments to expand and
modernize manufacturing capacity
and meet increased market de
)mands. The Raeford Plant, for
example, finished in the late 1970's
a S5 million project for innovative
weaving equipment, and BMD
completed a $3.8 million project in
the early 1980's.
The Dyeing Plant professes dyed
stock (fiber in staple f6rm) for
Raeford and other greige plants in
the division. BMD also manufac
tures natural (undyed) stock for
| another Menswear plant where
fabric will be piece-dyed.
The Raeford Plant is a fully
integrated yarn manufacturing and
weaving unit that produces greige
fabric (unfinished cloth).
Gabardine and serge are ex
amples of the fabrics made from
worsted and worsted-blend yard at
Raeford. The yarn is tightly woven
with a smooth, hard surface after it
is spun from strands of fiber in
silver (untwisted) form.
The two operations make Bur
lington the leading employer in
Hoke County and Raeford's and
Hoke County's largest taxpayer.
Burlington's impact on the region's
economy is significant.
In addition to the $19.5 million
in annual payroll and one of the
best benefit packages in the textile
industry, the company spends
about $3 million each year for
utilities, energy purchases and local
taxes.
During a recent five-year period,
absenteeism at these plants has
been less than half the national
average for all manufacturing
plants.
The stability of the work force is
equally impressive. During 1980,
for example, more than 90% of the
empldyees In both plants remained
with the company. This compares
with the textile industry average of
less than 70%.
BMD pioneered in a Work
Effectiveness program in 1979. The
program involves small groups of
employees doing similar work who
meet each week to discuss their
production and quality problems,
investigate causes, recommend
solutions, and take corrective ac
tion. Work Effectiveness improves
job satisfaction, teamwork and
communications.
Plant employes participate off
the job in community activities.
Various employes have served on
the Raeford City Council, as chair
man of the Hoke County United
Way, chairman of the Hoke County
Parks and Recreation Commission,
as officers of the Raeford-Hoke
County Chamber of Commerce and
in other civic and church organiza
tions.
The Burlington Foundation, on
behalf of employes of the two
plants, also makes annual dona
tions to various agencies and
institutions of the area.
TexElastic OMM operator Ann Sipes at work.
are two of 50 Burlington manufac
turing operations in 39 Tar Heel
communities. In addition, Burling
ton's corporate offices corporate
research and development, major
distribution centers and corporate
transportation operations are head
quartered in North Carolina. Bur
lington employs some 30,000
people at these operations, more
than half the company's total
employment in 10 states and four
foreign countries.
"Ours is a very basic and
traditional industry, yet it is
modern and viable," Harward said.
"In spite of the current economic
downturn, textiles continues to be
the largest industry in North Caro
lina, with over 219.000 employees
in the Tar Heel state." t
North Carolina textile payrolls
are $2.8 billion annually; textile
products range from basic textiles
for home, apparel and industry, to
more exotic products, for the space
program, for military and medical
uses, and use in other industries
such as microelectronics.
Other important Tar Heel indus
tries such as fiber manufacturers,
dye stuff and machinery manufac
turers, research and development
facilities, warehousing, distribution
and trucking industries depend
largely upon textiles.
it
Textile products represent al
most one fourth of North Carolina's
total industrial manufacturing
shipments.
The textile industry is the leading
employer of women and minorities
in the state; it has also averaged a
4.3 percent annual gain in produc
tivity since 1975, in a period in
which U.S. manufacturing gener
ally has averaged only 1.8 percent.
Textile capital spending in North
Carolina has totaled S2.3 billion
over the past 10 years; these
expenditures have dramatically in
creased productivity, plant effi
ciency, quality, and energy conser
vation.
"Burlington's capital program
continues to be the leader in the
industry," Harward said. "Our
company will spend over S200
million in 1982 for new and
expanded facilities; of this total, a
major part is going into North
Carolina operations. For example,
we are completing a S55 million
shuttleless weaving plant at Erwin
this year; last year we dedicated a
new air-jet weaving plant at
Marion; the year before we dedi
cated a new water-jet unit in
Richmond County. These and
other projects make Burlington
Plants the most modern in the
industry.
Cloth Room in the Raeford Plant: right foreground, Brendu Lewis; behind her and Marie McClav (left) and Willie Mae Shaw.
T exElastic Helps Garment Industry
TexElastic's Corp.'s Raeford
plant, which now employs 153
people seven days a week on three
shifts, was founded originally in
1949 as Parathread Co.
It was equipped with Arnold
covering machines manufacturing
heavy elastic yarns for the half hose
and foundation garment industries.
The plant was capable of producing
approximately 10,000 pounds of
elastic yarns weekly. Some of the
original employees were Carson
and Gene Lewis and Wayne Lackey
who later founded TexElastic.
U.S. Rubber Co.. at that time
the giant of the elastic yam
business, acquired the plant in
1955 and added some more Arnold
equipment along with some can
nister machines which were con
verted to Arnold machines.
In the early and middle 1960s
many of these machines were
converted from reel type take-ups
to tubes and with the introduction
of "Lycra" and "Vyrene" spandex
was converted from rubber covered
with cotton and rayon to spandex
covered with nylon. This moved the
plant into another field - ladies'
hosiery.
In July 1969, the plant was
purchased from Uniroyal by Tex
Elastic and continued to run mostly
Arnold machines for primarily the
half hose and foundation garment
industries with a small amount of
yarn going to ladies hosiery.
In 1970, the first high speed, fine
denier. Model 66 OMM covering
machines were installed, and the
size of the plant was doubled to
accommodate expansion. By 1972
there were 33 Model 66 machines in
operation turning out fine denier
yarns for support hosiery. During
1972, 10 more Model 66 machines
were acquired, along with 15 Model
63 OMM's, for a total of 58 OMM
covering machines.
During this buildup period the
proper auxiliary equipment was
also purchased to completely back
up these high speed covering
machines.
Ten more Model 66 machines
were purchased and put in produc
tion in 1973. Also, the Model 63
OMMs were converted from 20,000
revolutions per minute spindles to
30,000 RPM spindals to keep up
with customer demands for more
fine denier yarns.
At this time all covering of
rubber yarns as well as most of the
Arnold machines were moved to the
Archdale Plant and the Raeford
Plant had been changed from a
rubber covering plant serving the
half hose and foundation garment
industries to a spandex covering
plant serving the ladies hosiery
trade.
In 1976, two more Model 66
OMM machines were added for a
total of 70 OMM machines. From
this time until August of 1977 all
Arnold and Suma machines were
moved out of the plant to Archdale.
At this time 106 OMM machines
are running yams for sheer sup
port, control panty, and waist
bands for ladies' hosiery.
The company currently is selling
yarns that go into the following
national brands: L'Eggs Sheer
Energy, Kayser-Roth Sheer Com
fort Stride, Round The Clock's
Givenci, and Hanes Slenderalls, as
well as numerous other customers
in unbranded lines.
TexElastic here produces 16,000
to 20,000 pounds of fine denier
hrancis Harris at work as an inspector in the TexElastic plant here.
covered yams in a seven-day cycle.
The selling price of the various
yarns runs from S6 to SI 5 per
pound.
Visitors to the Raeford plant find
themselves in a climate-controlled
environment where the tempera
ture ranges from 80 to 85 degrees
and the humidity is maintained at
55 to 66 percent. These climate
factors are necessary to produce a
quality product.
Jamie Johnson. Raeford quality
control supervisor, says that certain
styles of fine denier covered yard
require as much as seven days to
complete a covering doff cycle.
The Raeford Plant's manager is
Horace Stogner, who has been with
the firm since the Adams-Millis
Corp. bought the Raeford plant in
1969. Before then, he was with
Uniroyal, the previous owner of the
plant.
Stogner was appointed plant
manager in 1974. He had been
working in scheduling and plan
ning, as a supervisor, and as plant
superintendent before assuming his
present duties.
He is a native of Wadesboro and
attended Presbyterian Junior Col
lege in Maxton. His wife formerly
worked with Uniroyal and Tex
Elastic. They have two sons, one
living in Durham, and the other in
Winter Park, Fla.
A l work in pari of Burlington //??
dusiries here.