Gildan Plans to Shutter Yarn-Spinning Facility in Georgia

COLUMBUS, Ga.-According to a local news source, Gildan Activewear Inc. is closing its yarn-spinning plant in Columbus, Georgia. This is the third U.S. manufacturing facility the company will have shuttered in the past 16 months.

The Montreal-based apparel manufacturer filed a 60-day WARN Act notice with the Georgia Commerce Department and expects to shut down production of yarns by July 27, 2019. The plant employs 97 people.

Gildan spokesman Garry Bell says 30 employees in Columbus have been moved to the company’s other yarn-spinning facility in the area and other workers impacted by the closure have been made offers to move to other North Carolina yarn-spinning facilities.

“The principal reason for the closure is that the demand for the yarns produced in this facility has decreased. We have exited some of the opening-price-point socks programs with retailers as they have shifted those programs towards more of their own private-label brands,” Bell says.

In February 2018, Gildan closed a former Comfort Colors dyeing facility in Massachusetts, and in May of 2018, Gildan eliminated 65 jobs at the Peds Manufacturing Group plant in Hildebran.

For more information on Gildan, visit http://www.gildancorp.com/homepage.