but the production of textiles has dwindled.
It comes as no surprise to those in textile manufacturing that the industry is continuing to decline. But for some the rapid pace at which mills across the country are closing is cause for alarm.
In the last year more than 125 U.S. textile manufacturing plants have shut their doors leaving close to 63,000 people without jobs. Nationwide, Amer-ican Textile Manufacturers Institute in Washington, D.C. estimates that there are only 448,700 workers left in the industry – the lowest total since the government started tracking jobs in the industry since 1939.
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And Rhode Island is not being spared. Last year the state lost two of its textile manufacturers — Eliz-abeth Webbing in Central Falls closed early in 2000 laying off close to 275 employees, and Seville Dyeing in Woon-socket officially closed late in December, resulting in a loss of more than 300 jobs.
In fact, the state’s textile employment level is at a historic low, and according to the Rhode Island Department of Labor’s employment projections could continue to drop by as much as 5 percent by 2008.
The statistics are a constant reminder for those left in the industry that while competition may be growing, locally the market is shrinking.
"You can’t make anything in this country," said Max Brickle, president of the Woonsocket-based Northwest Woolen Mills, a division of H. Brickle and Son, Inc., which manufactures blankets. "You can bring things in for a fifth of what it costs to manufacturer here. Unless you are manufacturing stuff for big industrial players like Whirlpool or General Electric, then you are struggling. Textile home furnishings have an opportunity to survive, but as far as apparel, unless you are doing government work there isn’t much of a market for you."
In recent years textile companies had found some success partnering with factories in Mexico and the Caribbean that would cut and sew the fabric and then move the product, duty free back to the United States. In 1998, the textile mill product industry saw nearly record profits of $2.1 million as a result of these new agreements.
But that success was only short lived. With the development of new currencies and the falling price of fabric, according to the textile institute in 2000, the industry lost more than $356 million – its first yearly loss since the 1940s.
Part of the problem, according to one industry expert, is a lack of support from the U.S. government.
"Textile is used as a bargaining chip in many trade agreements," said Karl Spilhaus, president of the Northern Textile Association, a Boston-based trade organization. "Our government has shown a tendency to give away our apparel market for whatever they can get."
Brickle agreed.
"The one and only thing that could protect us is the government, and in my opinion they don’t see textile as an important industry," he said. "Every time they get into a trade agreement they give up textiles. It’s that simple."
Adding more fuel to the fire, in three years the U.S. textile markets will lose their quota protections from China, resulting in even higher import numbers. Ninety percent of apparel is already imported from foreign countries.
"We are definitely in a global economy," Brickle said. "I think people are doing what they have to to survive."
Spilhaus said the increase in overseas imports is only going to make it more competitive locally.
"Given the pressure on the market where you have a smaller pie in the United States and more people fighting for it, I think it’s only going to get tougher," he said. "Everyone wants to find the magic formula and I think it’s going to get more difficult."
Still, according to Spilhaus, there is some hope for textile manufacturing in New England.
"Textile is going to remain in New England in the form that it is in now – a specialized value added industry that is less tied to the garment industry," he said. "I think that the New England area went through its evolution a couple of decades ago, so I think it’s pretty stable now."
What’s going to have a huge impact on the industry’s future, Spilhaus said, is the inability to attract a qualified workforce.
"The state of the industry has put a real damper on recruiting good talent," he said. "Young people don’t want to come into the industry and we need them to survive. We are a high-tech competitive industry, and I don’t think that people see that."
Both Spilhaus and Brickle agree success for textile manufactures is the result of diversification and specialization.
"It’s all about being a niche," Brickle said. "Anytime anything becomes commoditized, then it’s no longer here. It’s moved overseas."
And for Brickle, the future of his company isn’t solely based in textile, simply, he said, because it can’t be.
"Now we are looking to diversify into other fields," he said. "We have tried a dry-cleaning business and that didn’t work out, but there are always other areas. We have industrial real estate and we could do something in that area. We are a family-owned business and will do what we have to."
