Polymer Group, Inc. (PGI), a manufacturer of nonwovens, said Thursday it plans to consolidate its U.S. manufacturing operations to improve its cost structure and overall performance.
PGI will close its Rogers, Ark., and Gainesville, Ga., plants, and transfer portions of the business to other locations in North America and Asia. The Rogers plant employs about 120 workers, and the Gainesville plant has about 50 workers.
Operations at the two plants, which had similar manufacturing operations and equipment, will be phased out by mid-2007. PGI will provide the affected workers with severance and displacement assistance.
The thermal and adhesive bonding business will be relocated from Rogers to Landisville, N.J., while the spunlace fabric manufacturing operations will be moved from Rogers to CGI's plants in North Little Rock, Ark., and Benson, N.C.
PGI's medical fabric finishing operations will move from Gainesville to its new plant in Suzhou, China, where a state-of-the-art finishing line has been installed. The new plant is strategically located near PGI's customers' converting operations.
The manufacturing of PGI's proprietary Reticulon apertured film products will be moved from Gainesville to its Bonlam plant in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
After the consolidations are completed, PGI, which has 21 manufacturing facilities in nine countries, will continue to operate five nonwovens plants in the U.S. including Benson and Mooresville, N.C.; Landisville, N.J.; North Little Rock, Ark.; and Waynesboro, Va.
