Dan River taps Porter for global sourcing post

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 9/8/2004 12:00:00 AM

NEW YORK — In a sea change for a company that prides itself on U.S. manufacturing, Dan River Inc. is beefing up its import efforts, and has named Mike Porter, a global sourcing specialist from Tropical Sportswear International, to fill the newly created position of senior vice president for global sourcing.

In an internal staff memo, Dan River President Tom Muscalino said Porter, as the mill's first-ever executive-level sourcing chief, "will be responsible for developing and managing our company's full-package sourcing organization and activities. He will report directly to me."

Most recently, Porter had been vice president of global sourcing at Tropical Sportswear, where he was responsible for developing and managing the apparel company's full-package sourcing supply chain.

Porter began his career as industrial engineer for the Russell Corporation, supporting 13 U.S. sewing facilities. He moved to product management for Russell's international division, and was subsequently transferred to Livingston, Scotland, as group manager, manufacturing services, responsible for production planning, product development, quality assurance and industrial engineering for Russell's U.K. operations.

In 1993, he returned to Atlanta as director of global sourcing to establish and manage Russell's turnkey sourcing capabilities. In that post, he recruited and managed 25 employees in various sourcing activities, including quality assurance, traffic, technical design and administration, to support Russell's pipeline of product brought in from 27 manufacturing nations.

Initially, said Muscalino, Porter "will spend his time in New York and Danville, Va., to gain a full understanding of our current sourcing procedures and capabilities. On Sept. 13, he will begin to meet with our New York-based sales and marketing management, their supporting product managers, our design group and our merchandising team."

Then, Muscalino added, Porter "will meet with our Danville-based people involved with sourced product supply chain management, including finance, production planning, cost accounting systems, quality assurance and transportation."