CHICAGO — Sara Lee Corp. disclosed Tuesday nine of the plants and distribution centers it will close in the massive restructuring program of its personal products businesses.
As reported, the company announced the restructuring Monday, aimed primarily at cutting production in its lagging U.S. and European hosiery and fleece-wear business.
The closings announced on Tuesday, all in the U.S. and mainly in the Southeast, will cut 3,000 jobs in hosiery and knit products. With these closings, the company is also exiting the private-label activewear and underwear businesses, ending its Spring City Knitting division.
According to a Sara Lee spokeswoman, these changes represent the bulk of the changes in the U.S. knitwear and hosiery businesses. She added that more changes in international operations would be announced over the next two weeks.
The announcements made Tuesday detail the following moves:
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- Sara Lee Hosiery will close its Lumberton, N.C., manufacturing facility in December and a distribution center in Jackson, Miss., by June 1995. It will also consolidate Rice Hosiery’s packaging and distribution operations in High Point, N.C., and its international warehouse in Winston-Salem, N.C., into a single facility in Rockingham, N.C. About 700 jobs will be lost by these closures, and another 100 jobs will be eliminated from Sara Lee Hosiery’s Winston-Salem headquarters.
- Sara Lee Knit Products will close a fleece distribution center in Martinsville, Va., and move about 200 employees to another distribution center in Bowles, Va. About 125 jobs will be lost. It will also reduce capacity in its textile operations in Martinsville, Va., by going from four-shift to two-shift operations. About 290 jobs will be eliminated.
- Adams Millis, which makes socks for men, women and children, will close a knitting plant in High Point, N.C., and finishing operations at Kernersville, N.C., resulting in the elimination of 550 jobs. Distribution operations will continue at Kernersville. It will also cut 30 jobs from its headquarters.
- Spring City Knitting, private label activewear and underwear, will close three plants, one in Arizona and two in Georgia, and phase out its Gaffney, S.C., distribution, eliminating 950 jobs. Textile operations will remain open at the Gaffney plant, which will become part of Sara Lee’s Champion operation, a spokeswoman said.
- Sara Lee Direct, the company’s catalog and outlet-store operation, will eliminate 30 jobs from its headquarters.