Foreign Ventures And Diversification
In 1972 Springs became a partner in a joint venture to start a textile plant in Indonesia, P.T. Daralon Manufacturing Company. Early in 1973 it entered the frozen foods business, acquiring Seabrook Foods Inc. of Great Neck, New York, for about $34.5 million. In 1974 Springs sold its three terry-cloth production plants to J.P. Stevens Inc. and discontinued operation of its carpet division at York, which had been unprofitable since its inception in 1965. Springs sold the facility to Cannon Mills Company in 1975. The Indonesian plant went into operation in 1975, but failed to generate enough revenue to maintain working capital the unit’s creditors had to defer interest and other payments. The following year, Springs sold its interest in the venture. Springs continued updating and modernizing its plants closer to home in the late 1970s, but also got out of another unprofitable business by closing the knit division in 1978. In 1979 Springs acquired Lawtex Industries, a maker of textile home furnishing products, for $15.4 million plus the assumption of $13.5 million in liabilities, and Graber Industries, Inc., a manufacturer of blinds, shades, and other window decorating products, for $38.5 million.
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History Of Springs Industries
In 1887, Samuel Elliott White and others started Fort Mill Manufacturing Co. in Fort Mill, South Carolina. The plant opened in 1888. At one time, the plant employed 2000 and was the largest producer of fabric for bed sheets in the world, but in 1983 when it closed, only 200 still worked there. The White Plant in Fort Mill opened in 1892.
In 1895, Leroy Springs and others started Lancaster Cotton Mill in Lancaster, South Carolina. Springs also bought the Chester and Cheraw Railroad, renaming it the Lancaster and Chester Railroad, or L& C. Lancaster had the largest print cloth factory in the world in 1939.
In 1948, Springs opened the Grace Plant on the Catawba River near Lancaster at the site of a former locomotive shop. The company made consumer products for the first time.
In 1959, Elliott Springs died and H.W. Close became president of The Springs Cotton Mills and Springs Mills Inc., adding new plants and products and making Springs a publicly traded company in 1966. A new sales office in New York City, the Springs Mills Building, opened in 1963.
In 1962, Springs announced a warehouse complex in Fort Lawn, which was followed by the Elliott Plant and the Frances Plant. 650 people worked at the three operations. The warehouses could hold cotton worth more than $19 million.
The Katherine Plant in Chester opened in 1968.
In 1989, Springs opened the Close Plant in Fort Mill.
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Acquisitions Market Growth Plant Closures
In 1991 Springs acquired the C.S. Brooks’ Nashville plant, followed in 1992 by the acquisition of Finlayson Enterprises Ltd. along with two Canadian firms: C.S. Brooks Canada, Inc., and Griffiths-Kerr, which resulted in a new subsidiary called Springs Canada. As company officials had projected, by 1993 Springs derived 65 percent of its revenues from home furnishings sales, due in part to its acquisitions the previous year and to the growing North American market. A strong supporter of the North American Free Trade Agreement , Springs forecast substantial long-term growth opportunities from the markets in Mexico and Canada. To promote the passage of NAFTA, the company ran a grassroots campaign throughout 1993 in which 50,000 personal letters were written and innumerable phone calls were made to Congress. The formation of Springs Canada proved beneficial, expanding the company’s North American market and making Springs one of the leading suppliers of sheets and pillowcases in Canada.
Although net sales did not manage to significantly top those of the previous year, the close of 1996 and early 1997 showed Springs to be well positioned in its industry, well-focused and intent on its market, with a strong capacity for continued growth. Nevertheless, plant closures continued into the late 1990s, with five facilities being shut down in 1998, including a bleachery in Rock Hill that dated to the Great Depression.
