An apparel era ends in Winston-Salem: Hanesbrands to stop hosiery production at its Weeks plant by end of 2010, cutting 240

Oct 28, 2009 (Winston-Salem Journal - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- HBI | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- The countdown has begun on the shift of Hanesbrands Inc.'s Weeks plant from a massive symbol of local and global manufacturing might to a milestone entry in the history books.

Hanesbrands said yesterday that it will end hosiery production at the 850,000-square-foot plant by the end of 2010, eliminating 240 manufacturing jobs and transferring 80 distribution jobs to its Almondridge Road center in Rural Hall. It will begin reducing production at Weeks -- its last Forsyth County plant -- in the second quarter.

The company said that consumers have been purchasing fewer sheer-hosiery products for more than 10 years, with sales off 14 percent in 2008 and down another 18 percent through June 30.

"As a result of lower consumer demand, our sheer-hosiery production volume has dropped to a point that it is no longer feasible to run the plant," said Bruce Duncan, the vice president of knit-to-shape manufacturing for the company.

About 200 employees in research, product development, quality control and engineering are unaffected. The company plans to sell the plant and lease space for those operations.

Even with 520 employees now at Weeks, the work force and the plant at 401 W. Hanes Mill Road are a mere shell of what was once a cornerstone of Forsyth County's textile and apparel industry.

Hanes Hosiery Mills Co. opened Weeks in 1960 -- the largest manufacturing plant ever built in North Carolina at that time. Hanes Hosiery spent about $30 million on the plant, or about $219 million in today's dollars, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The plant featured air conditioning in every manufacturing room, enough equipment to double Hanes' previous annual production capacity to 100 million pairs of stockings, and parking for 1,875 automobiles. The 4,000 employees -- of which 70 percent were women -- were paid among the highest wage rates in the industry.

Although Weeks was affected, like most textile and apparel plants in the South, by the pursuit of lower-cost production outside the United States, its fate was sealed when less-formal workplace dress codes lowered demand for sheer hosiery.

The decision to close the Weeks plant did not come as a surprise to Michael Lord, an associate professor of management at Wake Forest University.

"It's notable that these job cuts are not solely, or not necessarily even mostly, due to off shoring or outsourcing," Lord said. "The closure is largely driven by changes in market trends, made even worse by the continued weak overall economy.

"Even the better niche markets in sheer hosiery do not generate the volume to support large manufacturing operations."

The closing of the Weeks plant represents another milestone for Hanesbrands, whose predecessor companies Hanes Corp. and Sara Lee Corp. kept thousands of Triad residents gainfully employed in plants that once dotted Northwest North Carolina.

Since Hanesbrands' spinoff from Sara Lee in September 2006, it has closed 12 domestic plants. That includes 610 jobs at its fabrics plant on Stratford Road, another hosiery cornerstone.

When Hanesbrands spun out of Sara Lee, it had 4,900 employees in Forsyth -- nearly 10 percent of its overall work force -- and 8,600 in North Carolina.

By the time Hanesbrands completes the Weeks plant closing, as well as two other restructuring changes announced earlier this year, the company will have about 2,500 employees in Forsyth and 3,785 in the state. It also will have just one plant in North Carolina, a sock facility in Mount Airy.

Shares of Hanesbrands fell 2.59 percent to $22.90 a share at close yesterday.

Ralph Womble, the retired chief executive of Hanes Cos. Inc. and now involved with Trade Partners Inc., said he doesn't view the closing of the Weeks plant as overly symbolic.

"We've been losing large-scale apparel and textile manufacturing over the last 30 years -- in this area and in the country," Womble said. "If it's not viable, you can't expect them to continue to do it.

"To look on the positive side, even with the shifting of production to other countries, we have retained the corporate headquarters.

"We have to look at what else is new out there rather than what is old," Womble said. "We can't lament the past. We've got to work hard as a community to replace these jobs."

rcraver@wsjournal.com

727-7376

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Since 2006...

Hanesbrands Inc. has reduced the number of:

Plants from 19 to 7.

Workers in Forsyth County from 4,900 to 2,500.

Workers in North Carolina from 8,600 to 3,785.

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