The whirlwind of mergers and acquisitions has claimed another Rhode Island manufacturing company. Coats North America, formerly the Premier Thread Company in Bristol, is expected to close its doors next month after being a fixture along the town’s waterfront for almost a century. Many of the company’s 90 employees, officials said, have found other jobs.
Opened in the early 1900s as Collins and Ackeman, a wool manufacturer, the factory spanned almost the entire length of the pier. Over the years, like many mills located along Rhode Island’s waterways, Collins and Ackeman were divided and eventually sold. Half of it became the Premier Thread Company.
Today, the façade of the four-story brick building shows its age. With cracks along its face, and rust shading its windows like bags under the eyes.
The building is getting ready for yet another tenant. After the departure of Coats of North America next month, there is talk it will be turned into condominiums – and become part of an extensive renovation along Bristol’s waterfront.
”The town is glad to see that there is going to be an upgrading enhancement of the waterfront,” said Gerhard Oswold, director of community development in Bristol. “But at the same time it’s disappointing to see jobs being lost.”
Coats of North America, a subsidiary of the London-based Coast Viyella Group, bought Premier Thread Company in 1993. In September of last year, the parent company acquired Hicking Pentecost, another U.S.-based thread-company, which owned additional businesses manufacturing a similar type of product as Coats North America. Soon after the purchase, Coats announced it would be closing the Bristol location.
“Hicking owns another company known as Barber Threads,” said Jane Brosnan, communications manager at Coats North America. “These companies gave us a certain kind of thread, and they gave us a certain technology that made us much more competitive. The Bristol location was making that kind of thread, but compared to our other locations was running fairly small volumes. It was an efficiency decision.”
Though the Bristol location accounted for only 2 percent of the company’s annual production, the decision to close the plant will leave almost 90 employees without a job.
”It’s definitely difficult,” said Lou-Ann LaPorte, plant manager at the Bristol location. “We had a large number of people who had been here more than 20 years. It was their home and their family.”
”We had two job fairs in conjunction with the state Department of Labor and Training, and we have given people the names of companies that are looking for employment.”
Brosnan said that in addition to the small amount of production at the plant, the condition of its current location also played a role in the decision to close.
”At this point the entire building would need an entire structural overhaul,” she said. “When we are faced with decisions on how we want to spend our capital, we honestly felt we could make better use of our money.”
But for some in the area, the old factory could be seen as prime property. Situated right on the water with views of Narragansett Bay, the factory is located in the middle of an extensive renovation project of the downtown waterfront.
Still, Oswold said, there is concern the renovations could have a negative economic impact on the rest of the 300-year-old town of Bristol.
“The impact on the character of the town is questionable,” he said. “Space, like the factories in that area, is being sought by a lot of companies. Ideally it would be good if we could get a company in there that could provide good jobs for the community. It’s just disappointing that we can’t.”
