Marion’s Blumenthal Mills to close
Patricia Burkett/News 13
Employees at Blumenthal Mills Inc.’s jacquard damask weaving plant in Marion have been told to pick up their last check, the plant is closing for good.
Published: November 23, 2009
Updated: November 24, 2009
More than 100 employees at Blumenthal Mills Inc.’s jacquard damask weaving plant in Marion arrived Tuesday morning to pick up their last check as the plant is officially closing for good after more than 30 years.
Marion plant CEO Ken Gunnin confirmed the closing, as did Marion County Economic Development Commission Director Rodney Berry, on Monday night.
“It’s a tough time for them and a tough time for us, but our focus is moving forward,” Berry said.
Berry said county officials and plant representatives sought a number of avenues to keep the facility in operation, to no avail.
“They’ve been a tremendous corporate citizen,” he said of Blumtnhal.
Berry said he was notified the plant was closing Monday night, noting the plant has been struggling for some time.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late October 2008. Filing under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code frees a company from the threat of creditors’ lawsuits while it reorganizes its finances.
Gunnin said in October 2008 the company was in negotiations with another company in Louisiana that would provide capital investment, but those negotiations fell through.
As a result, and because of the current tough economic times, the company had to file for bankruptcy protection, but there were no plans to close the plant, Gunnin said in October. The company’s primary shareholder was working in October 2008 to have an infusion of capital investment that would help the company regain its financial composure.
Blumenthal Mills Inc. is a division of Blumenthal Print Works Inc., which had 450 employees in 2007. Frankie Hasty, the Marion plant’s human resources manager, said the plant employed 250 people in 2007.
Since then, however, the plant scaled down to 138 employees and was operating three days a week.
Marion County had the fourth-highest unemployment rate at 20.7, down from 20.9 percent in September, according to the latest figures from the S.C. Employment Security Commission.
Founded in 1924, in New Orleans, the family-owned company is in its third generation of family management under the direction of Harry J. Blumenthal Jr., according to the company’s Web site, http://www.blumenthalprintworks.com.
Blumenthal began as a sales organization, converting and importing mattress ticking for sale in the United States. In 1975, Blumenthal Mills Inc., a jacquard damask weaving facility, was opened in Marion.
On the Web: Blumenthal Print Works Inc., http://www.blumenthalprintworks.com
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Textilefatality, you hit the nail on the head. I worked for a major fortune 500 company, and too many times we would be directed by a CEO, who didn’t have a clue as to what we did, to implement a program that worked at another division and expect it to work for us, even though we manufactured two completely different products. He would not listen to us when we explained that it would not work, then blame us for sabotaging the program when it failed. In the meantime our division has been closed because we were not profitable enough (a lot of time and money wasted on programs that wouldn’t work) and other divisions have been either closed or the manufacturing section has been moved to China or Mexico. So, over 700 people in my division (not counting suppliers and support companies) were layed off and thousands from other divisions lost their jobs. In the meantime his pay and bonuses have increased dramatically. China is taking our money to manufacture and export poisonous products (lead paint on toys, cyanide in sheetrock and bad baby formulas) then loaning that money back to us at a fairly good interest rate so we can fix our unemployment problems. Mexico is just taking our money and sending us their poor and criminals. And we can thank the Politicians for relaxing trade rules. We need to get our ship right before it is too late.
Scarecrow. I wholeheartedly agree with you that Obama will be held responsible for whatever happens on his watch just as Bush was..whether it is the truth or not. And yes, in my opinion,we do need to vote out 98% of our house and senate. Our government is full of corrupt, self-serving idiots…and that too should start at the top with the sorry excuse for a president that we have ever had. You are surely entiltled to your opinion about Blumenthal Mills and Obama may be held responsible since it is his watch but it was not Obamaconomics that buried Blumenthal. It was offshore manufacturing, poor management by their CEO and his sick desire to fire managers that were making the company successful to feed his ego, only to hire managers that were incompetent and intimidated by his ranting and raving, so he could feel powerful.
You may slice it any way you choose, BUT in the END Barak Obama WILL be held responsible for whatever happens on HIS watch, just as Bush was for the same reason. The buck stops right there and excuses will not cut it for him either. Of course all of this economic mess was in the works for decades. NAFTA says it all. To properly mete out blame, it will be necessary to ride out 98 Senators [98 yea, 1 NO, 1 abstain]on a rail tarred and feathered. And 90% of the House on the same ride.
Although I am by no menas an Obama fan because in my opinion he has accomplished absolutelky nothing since entering office to positively affect our economy for anyone to think that Obama’s policies were the reason for Blumenthal Mills closing is absolutely ridiculous. The decline of the American textile industry began when our government sold us out by passing NAFTA. First, textile jobs moved to Mexico; then to Central & South America. Now it’s China and India. Blumenthal Mills has struggled for years to combat this type of competition. BMI did sacrifice their quality to be more price competitive, but I can tell you it was by no means a conscious decision that quality would be sacrificed because Harry Blumenthal would rather burn you at the stake than ship off quality. The CEO of the company, Ken Gunnin, is responsible for the demise in the quality of BMI’s product. He purchased sub-standard yarns and materials and expected the production departments to continue to produce top quality goods and when it was broght to his attention he would rant, rave, cuss and demand that the impossible be done. He terminated effective manager after effective manager for no reason other than to feel how powerful his position was. Offshore manufacturing hurt BMI, the economy hurt BMI, poor management buried Blumenthal Mills Inc.
Commonsense, well said.
Not so “commonsense”. [nonsense would say it better]. You and others harped for 8 years non stop accusing Bush of everything in the book. You are now suffering the same injury to your chosen great leader whose has as pointed out, done nothing [except bump his gums]. But he has done one thing in 11 months. He has spent more money we do not have than any President in history did in 11 months. So you and him and the rest of the gang will just have to bear up for the next 3 years and 1 month.
Comments about our president’s economic stimulus plans are misguided as it pertains to Blumenthal. This is a company that has been buffeted by the global economy for many years. They have fought hard to counter the effects of imported textiles and with some success. IMHO part of their demise is that they lost their emphasis on quality in their quest to be more price competitive. When that happened their loyal, historical customer base splintered and they embarked on a new plan to pursue larger national accounts. As this was happening the mattress industry converted to single sided products and entered what will soon be the 3rd year of declining sales. As if that weren’t enough the financial crisis has severely constricted the access to capital that companies like Blumenthal have traditionally had. Unlike Washington which can print more money businesses either have to earn it or borrow it. Earnings have been nil at Blumenthal and the banks are essentially closed.
The great lesson to be learned here is that several prior administrations consistently sacrificed industries like textiles while this administration is restricting capital to the point that many companies can not and will not survive.
Will there be any shortage of textiles or fabrics as a result of this closing? Sadly the answer is no. There will only be a growing lack of American jobs!
Commonsense (or lack thereof)
Obama’s ‘stimulus’ was supposed to free up capital so that investments could be made. As you can see by all the companies looking for capital and cannot find it and having to close the doors. His stimulus failed.
His stimulus was also supposed to level unemployment off at 8%, officially it’s over 10%. And if you count the people who have given up on finding jobs, or the underemployed, it is closer to the 18~20% range.
Thank you angelswalk for pointing that out. Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion but anyone who thinks the closing of Blumenthal is President Obama’s fault, is just dumb. Anyone in Marion and Dillon counties with any shred of good sense knows Blumenthal has been sinking for several years now. That has nothing to do with the current president. Americans are so irresponsible that everyone wants to point the finger at everyone else. I read some of these comments on here and it makes me sick how completely pathetic and apparently racist many of you are. You want to blame Obama for everything from the economy to your crappy lives. I have not commented for a long time simply because I think most of you need to grow up and accept that the world is actually a diverse place with more people other than people that look like you. Yes, it’s true. I do agree that I have some concerns about the Obama administration but I had the same concerns about the Bush administration. Maybe Obama hasn’t done anything but the last time I checked, Bush really didn’t either. For those of you that just want to complain, let me point something out to you. Before the stimulus plan was passed Obama did indicate that there would be jobs created but he also stated that with the state of the economy being so poor, during the recovery period jobs would still be lost. But how can you people listen when you are constantly talking crap?
Well of course it can be blamed on obama. Everybody tries to blame every other problem we have on Bush. If Bush did such a bad job then Nobama is just as capable of doing as bad of a job. Yet so far he hasn’t done anything.
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