Unifi Shuts Recently Acquired Plant in S.C.
Five months after it purchased a textile facility in Dillon, S.C., fiber maker Unifi Inc. announced plans to shut it down by the end of July and move the plant’s equipment and some of the staff to Unifi’s larger facility in Yadkinville, N.C.
Unifi produces multi-filament polyester and nylon textured yarns and related raw materials for several markets, including home furnishings, apparel, legwear, automotive, military and medical applications. Some of its branded yarns include Sorbtek, A.M.Y., Mynx UV, Repreve, Reflexx, MicroVista and Satura.
Unifi bought the Dillon plant in January for approximately $65.2 million in a deal that net the Greensboro, N.C.–based Unifi 42 texturizing machines and a staff of about 355 employees. Unifi will add about 120 employees to its Yadkinville plant. The company estimates the move’s cost—including closing the Dillon plant, severance pay and the cost of moving equipment—to be about $2.1 million. But the company said it expects to realize an annual savings of about $5 million by combining the two plants.
The Yadkinville plant is Unifi’s largest. The move is part of Unifi’s plan to streamline operations and realize economies of scale throughout its business.
“The closure of the Dillon facility is consistent with our strategy of making key acquisitions and addressing excess capacity to lower our manufacturing costs,” said Bill Lowe, chief operating officer and chief financial officer for Unifi, in a statement. “We continue to streamline our product mix and look to maximize our facility utilization rates to lower manufacturing costs to compete in the marketplace.” —Alison A. Nieder
DuPont’s Fiber Technologies Honored
DuPont’s bio-engineered polymer Sorona was among the honorees at the recent International Engineered Fabrics Conference & Expo, held in Miami Beach, Fla.
Sorona, which is manufactured from a renewable resource derived from corn, received the IDEA07 Achievement Award for raw materials.
Sorona, which DuPont first created in the 1940s, was originally made from a petrochemical source, but the company in 1993 launched a seven-year research program to find a renewable resource that would maintain Sorona’s characteristics, including softness, stretch and recovery, good hand, stain resistance, crush resistance, and easy-care and fast-drying properties. The company discovered a way to manufacture Sorona’s key ingredient— propanediol, or PDO—from corn sugar and set out to license the proprietary technology to fiber makers around the world.
Wilmington, Del.–based DuPont formed a joint venture with British carbohydrate processing conglomerate Tate & Lyle to create a new company, DuPont Tate & Lyle BioProducts LLC, to produce the new corn-based polymer, dubbed Bio-PDO. The first Bio-PDO facility opened in 2006 in Loudon, Tenn. According to the company, the manufacturing of Bio-PDO consumes 40 percent less energy and produces 20 percent fewer greenhouse-gas emissions than the manufacturing of petroleum-based PDO.
DuPont also won an Achievement Award at IDEA07 for its proprietary spinning process, DuPont Hybrid Membrane Technology, which allows for the production of tiny polymeric filaments with a diameter between 100 nanometers and one micron. The nanofiber has applications for air and water filtration and other industrial uses. —Alison A. Nieder
Wellman Raises Fortrel Price
Fort Mill, S.C.–based Wellman Inc. is increasing the price of its Fortrel polyester staple fiber by $0.04 per pound, citing increased raw-material costs.
“This price increase is necessary due to continued increases in the cost of our petrochemical-based raw materials and their feedstocks,” said Steve Ates, vice president of sales and marketing, in a statement.
In addition to Fortrel, Wellman produces other branded products, including PermaClear and EcoClear polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, resins for packaging. —Alison A. Nieder
