Greensboro-based Unifi now says almost three times the number of workers will lose jobs when it closes a yarn-manufacturing facility in the Rockingham County town of Madison, according to an SEC filing on Wednesday.
Unifi expects to close the plant by the end of September, resulting in the loss of 250 jobs. On Monday, Unifi filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification that put the job losses at 91 workers, but added “additional layoffs are likely.”
Layoffs for the 91 workers will begin April 4, according to the WARN notice, with the remainder following. An undetermined number of workers will have opportunities to work at other Unifi sites, which include manufacturing facilities in Yadkinville and Reidsville and its headquarters in Greensboro.
Unifi is already marketing its Rockingham County property, which includes a 947,000-square-foot manufacturing space and two warehouses totaling 133,000 square feet. The buildings are on almost 95 acres off N.C. 704. The buildings were built in 1997 and the property has a tax value of $28 million, according to Rockingham County tax records. Unifi has operated a plant in Madison since 1998.
Proceeds from the sale of the building will be used to pay down existing debt.
“The footprint reduction will improve efficiency and allow for a significant increase in utilization rates at the other production facilities,” according to the filing. Production will shift to other Unifi facilities in North and Central America.
Unifi expects to incur restructuring charges of between $5 million and $7.5 million related to closing the Madison facility. Those charges include up to $3.5 million for equipment relocation and disposal, $3 million for employee retention or separation and $1 million for other related costs.
The total net book value of fixed assets associated with the Madison facility was $9 million as of Dec. 29, according to the filing.
“We are very grateful for the hard work, contributions, and support from everyone involved with the Madison facility, including the community and employees, past and present. We will work closely with our employees and community to ensure the smoothest transition possible, and we are offering existing employees available opportunities at our other facilities in North Carolina,” CEO Eddie Ingle says in a statement.
Unifi is known for creating synthetic textiles using recycled plastic bottles and textile waste. It had 2,900 employees as of June 30 with operations in U.S., Colombia, El Salvador and Brazil. Unifi has about 1,600 employees in North Carolina.
Unifi shares have sold between $5.41 and 7.91 in the past year, and are up 2.6% in the past 52 weeks. Shares closed Wednesday at $6.24, up 4 cents. It has a market capitalization of $114.5 million.
Unifi reported net sales were $138.9 million, an increase of 1.4% from the second quarter of fiscal 2024, primarily driven by higher sales volumes. Net loss was $11.4 million, or $0.62 per share, compared to a net loss of $19.8 million, or $1.10 per share, for the second quarter of fiscal 2024.
Between 1993 and 2022, employment in textile mills and apparel manufacturing declined 85% and 94.4%, respectively, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce. In 1993, textile mills were the top subsector in North Carolina’s manufacturing industry. By 2022, textile mills had dropped to ninth and accounted for 5.1% in that subsector.