SPARTANBURG, SC - Milliken & Company ranks as the 16th best company in FORTUNE magazine's annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" listing in its Jan. 5 edition.
Milliken is the only company in South Carolina to make the list.
"We are pleased that those who have made this company great, our associates, are receiving this public recognition," said Dr. Ashley Allen, president and chief operating officer of Milliken. "It really is an affirmation of what they have known all along, but it is nice for them to be able to see it in print."
Milliken has long been a fierce advocate for preserving American jobs. The company has faced tough global competition in recent years as part of the embattled textile industry. Still, it has resisted the lure of offshoring and moving jobs to low-wage countries.
"It's been a rough couple of years for jobs. But lots of companies still want to be good places to work - and 59 of the companies on the list actually added to their payrolls last year," wrote Robert Levering and Milton Moskowitz of the Great Place to Work Institute, which researches and compiles the list.
"Milliken is all about American jobs," said Richard Dillard, director of public affairs. "America first. It is a culture ingrained throughout the organization and one that our associates appreciate and embrace."
To create the list, Levering and Moskowitz surveyed 46,526 randomly selected employees from 304 candidate companies who filled out an employee-opinion survey. Nearly half also gave written comments about their workplaces.
Each candidate company also filled out a questionnaire detailing its people policies, practices and philosophies. Companies were evaluated on both the employee surveys and the company questionnaires, with the employees' opinions being given two-thirds of the total score.
"The most important factor in selecting companies for this list is what employees themselves have to say about their workplaces," wrote Levering and Moskowitz.
"Overall," concluded Levering and Moskowitz, "today's lesson is that perks are nice, but employees are looking for something more basic. They want to be told the truth, especially if the news is bad. They also want, corny as it sounds, to feel they make a difference and to be given a chance to grow."
Milliken has attributed much of its success to a quality process with employee involvement at all levels and its continuous education process, creating an environment that allows every associate to reach his or her full potential.
WEST POINT, GA - WestPoint Stevens, Inc., operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since June, announced Jan. 9 that it is closing four plants and converting another one, eliminating 975 jobs.
The closings will occur at the 200-employee Dixie and 350-employee Dunson plants in LaGrange, GA, the 300-employee Fairfax Greige Plant in Valley, AL, and a 125-employee plant in Choushatta, LA. The closings are set to occur March 9.
The Lanier plant in Valley, AL, will be coverted to towel production.
Expenses associated with this realignment were included in an additional restructuring charge approved by the company's board during the third quarter of last year.
The consolidation within the company's Bath Products segment will close two older, multi-level towel-making facilities - Fairfax Greige Plant and Dixie Plant - and move some production equipment from those plants into Lanier-Carter facility, putting modern equipment into a one-level facility with an efficient work flow, WPS said.
The Carter Plant, Lanier's sister facility under the same roof, was converted to towel production in 2002. A "limited" number of new jobs will be created at the Carter facility, WestPoint said.
Production at Dunson Plant, also an older, multi-level facility, will be folded into other Bed Products plants with more modern manufacturing layout.
Capacity created by the addition of Coushatta Plant to the Basic Bedding Division is no longer needed because of increased manufacturing efficiencies achieved at other Basic Bedding plants that are better geographically located for the company's distribution system, the company said.
"Overall, these moves will strengthen the company with greater production efficiency and better-aligned capacity and allow us to compete more effectively in a global economy," said WestPoint President and CEO M.L. "Chip" Fontenot.
Relocation of equipment to Lanier-Carter will get under way mid-March, with towel production at Lanier scheduled to begin early-to-mid-summer.
Attempts will be made to place laid-off employees in jobs at other area company facilities as the consolidation is completed, WPS said.
A layoff at the Lanier Plant was announced on Nov. 18.
The latest cuts represent about 7 percent of WestPoint's total work force of 14,000.
ALBANY, GA - Flint River Textiles, a fabric producer, announced it is shutting its doors at the cost of 230 jobs.
The company was unable to compete with cheap Asian textiles in recent years, according to company President Philip McArdle. Flint River's sales have slid about 40 percent since 2000 and the company hasn't turned a profit in three years, he told The Albany Herald.
"Honestly, it was inevitable," he told the newspaper. "We're up against prices there is no way in God's name we can compete with."
Flint River Textiles, established in 1909, made fabrics for home furnishings.
HICKORY, NC - Regal Manufacturing Company is cutting about 115 jobs with the closing of a manufacturing plant here in March.
The company, which makes covered elastomeric yarns for knitted or woven stretch fabrics and legwear, will transfer work to plants in Colombia, Regal said in a statement.
The company will keep about 25 employee here in research, development, sales, technical, warehouse and distribution.
