Glen Raven Launching New Facility

Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, September 10, 2012

GLEN RAVEN, N.C. - In response to growing demand for Sunbrella fabrics woven with specialty yarn colors and constructions, Glen Raven Custom Fabrics is creating a new yarn plant in Burlington, N.C., the company announced. The new operation, which represents a $10 million investment, is being designed specifically to meet customer requests for increasingly diverse and highly decorative Sunbrella fabrics.
     The new plant will be located in an existing 130,000-square-foot facility that formerly operated as Glen Raven's Ultra Spun division. It will be equipped with the latest in automated yarn manufacturing systems and configured around a manufacturing model engineered to support high levels of flexibility and customization.
     Retrofitting of the facility has begun with a projected completion date of late summer 2013.
     Glen Raven employees currently working at the company's existing Link Spinning facility in Burlington will transition to the newly renovated facility, which will result in 30 new positions for a total workforce at the new plant of 80. Planning is underway for repurposing the Link Spinning facility.
     The new Burlington Yarn Plant will resemble Glen Raven's flagship Anderson, S.C., plant with a modular, highly automated environment featuring lean manufacturing processes and the latest in air handling systems for product quality and employee comfort. Yarns produced at the Burlington Yarn facility will be woven into Sunbrella fabrics in Anderson.
     Glen Raven's Ultra Spun facility, built in 1990, was originally dedicated to synthetic yarns for apparel markets, which Glen Raven discontinued in 2001. National Spinning operated the facility as a yarn plant until 2009.