Glen Raven to Open Chinese Mill in 2006
July 15, 2005
GREENSBORO, North Carolina — Glen Raven Mills has broken ground on a new weaving and finishing mill in Suzhou China that should be on line producing Glenn Tuft® outdoor fabric by spring, 2006.
Glenn Tuft a $4/$5 per yard line of basic plaids, stripes and plains in olefin fiber, is presently made in Anderson, South Carolina. A Chinese national has been hired to run the new Chinese plant reporting to Steve Ellington, president of Glen Raven Fabrics LLC, a division of Glen Raven. The 125-year-old company which pioneered acrylic outdoor fabrics under the Sunbrella® brand felt it was time to service its growing outdoor furniture manufacturer/customer base in Asia, a company spokesman said.
"We have customers in the U.S. and Europe who are building outdoor furniture in China. We wanted to give them the service they require on a local basis in China. By basing the plant in China, we can cut our delivery time to those customers by six weeks, the time it takes to ship over water."
The source said Glen Raven generates somewhere between 10-20 percent of its sales through export today.
Glenn Tuft a $4/$5 per yard line of basic plaids, stripes and plains in olefin fiber, is presently made in Anderson, South Carolina. A Chinese national has been hired to run the new Chinese plant reporting to Steve Ellington, president of Glen Raven Fabrics LLC, a division of Glen Raven. The 125-year-old company which pioneered acrylic outdoor fabrics under the Sunbrella® brand felt it was time to service its growing outdoor furniture manufacturer/customer base in Asia, a company spokesman said.
"We have customers in the U.S. and Europe who are building outdoor furniture in China. We wanted to give them the service they require on a local basis in China. By basing the plant in China, we can cut our delivery time to those customers by six weeks, the time it takes to ship over water."
The source said Glen Raven generates somewhere between 10-20 percent of its sales through export today.
