Unifi to Close Plant, Reports Loss

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 5/7/2007 12:00:00 AM

Greensboro, N.C. —

Polyester and nylon textured yarn manufacturer Unifi will close its recently acquired Dillon, S.C. plant and relocate those operations to the company's Yadkinville, N.C. factory. Unifi acquired the Dillon plant, which employs 355 workers and has 42 texturing machines, in January for about $65.2 million; the company plans to add 120 employees to Yadkinville as part of the move.

"We continue to streamline our product mix and look to maximize our facility utilization rates to lower manufacturing costs to compete in the marketplace," said Bill Lowe, coo and cfo, Unifi. "We plan to move some texturing machines into our existing facilities and expect the impact on our customers to be seamless during the transition period."

Unifi reported a net loss of $13.2 million for the third quarter ended March 25 2007, compared a net loss of $2.1 million for the year-prior quarter, including discontinued operations. Net loss from continuing operations was $13.9 million, compared to a net loss of $1.3 million last year. Results in the current quarter include charges of $3.5 million related to a customer that filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Net sales from continuing operations, including the sales from the Dillon acquisition, were $178.2 million, down 1.8% compared to net sales of $181.4 million for the same period one year ago.

Lowe said, "Volumes rebounded in the March quarter as expected, and our pre-tax income for the current quarter would have been slightly positive, excluding the facility and equipment impairment charges and the customer bankruptcy charges."