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Sheets to success Whether they prefer high-count cotton Wamsutta sheets or Winnie-the-Pooh pillowcases, Springs Industries helps its millions of customers get their beauty sleep. Springs Industries is a leading manufacturer of home furnishings and specialty fabrics. Founded in 1887 as the Fort Mill Manufacturing Company, Springs has been run (and has the majority of its stock held) by the Close family, the descendants of founder Leroy Springs. Today, the company earns 85 percent of its revenue from bed and bath furnishings and curtains. What's in a Springs? The name Springs Industries wasn't coined until 1981, when the company began to acquire several high profile subsidiaries -- and high profile products such as Bali blinds, Wamsutta sheets, and Dundee towels. In the late 1980s Springs faced flagging sales, along with the rest of the textile industry. Unfortunately, two plants were closed, a move that detracted from the company's hard-earned reputation as a faultless employer. Since then, Springs has revived its bottom line, shoring up its profits through new acquisitions and licensing agreements with Disney, Bill Blass, and Liz Claiborne. Starting in 2000, the compny plans on stepping up its brand advertising, something it has never put much money into before now. Buy! Buy! Sell! Sell! The company has also been refining its mix of companies recently. In late 1998 and early 1999, Springs Industries bought Regal Rugs, a maker of bath and accent rugs for $30 million. Springs Industries also completed the purchase of American Fiber Industries, a maker of pillows, mattress pads and down comforters. Springs had already owned 50 percent of the company. At the same time, Springs sold two divisions so it could focus more on the production of finished sheets, towels and other home furnishing. Gone in the sale went the company's Springfield Division, a producer of woven fabrics for clothes and the company's Industrial Products Division. The Springfield sale netted the company $64 million; the Industrial Products sale earned $24 million. By mid-2000, Springs also announced that it could no longer sustain two baby apparel plants in Griffin, GA. The closings put 400 employees out of work, in addition to the 65 employees laid off from the company's yarn production facility in the same area. The company seems to be concentrating instead on its area of proven success. The new Bedroom Solutions program adds new colors, coordinating bath products, and new lines of 300- and 330- thread-count sheets to Wamsutta's products. And if Springmaid isn't already a household name, it should become one now that Wal-Mart carries the line in every single one of its 2,500 stores across the U.S. Wal-Mart is already the number two home textiles retailer behind J.C. Penney, providing Springs with a promising market. It is the first time the Springmaid brand has been offered at a discount retailer.
Springs Industries conducts its corporate hiring through its headquarters in Fort Mill, SC, even though many positions are located elsewhere throughout the country. The company's web site lists a variety of job openings in the career section under corporate info. Applicants can submit resumes via mail, fax, or e-mail.
Great facilities While production workers say their "12-hour shifts" in which they work for two days and rest for two days "require a period of adjustment," they add that Springs "is dedicated to worker health and safety." Employees praise the company's "extensive," "well-equipped" athletic facilities, which include an Olympic-sized pool, skating rink and horse-back riding areas. Employees also praise the "generous" education assistance program and "valuable" feedback that they receive from upper- and mid-level management. It's not finance But employees warn that that textile industry isn't the finance industry. "The benefits and compensation are comparable to other textiles companies, which are a bit lower than some other industries," says one insider.
Gracie P. Coleman Human Resources
Bed, bath, and other home furnishing by:;Wamsutta;Springmaid;Wabasso;Bali and Graber;Ultrasuede;Licensing agreements with Liz Claiborne, Bill Blass, Walt Disney
Dan River;JPS Textile;Laura Ashley;Spartan Mills;Thomaston Mills More Company Profiles For more career information, go to Vault.com ©2000, Vault.com Inc
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