Textile company with deep ties in Charlotte region laying off dozens of workers

A manufacturing company in the Charlotte region is laying off dozens of employees.

Charlotte-based Coats American Inc. is cutting 41 jobs at its McAdenville facility in Gaston County, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) filed recently with the North Carolina Department of Commerce. The layoffs are effective April 24.

The Coats facility produces industrial-grade yarns used in protective apparel for firefighters and military personnel.

Job cuts at the 300 Dickson Road site include eight machine technician operators, eight prep operators, six winding operators, five spinning operators and four supervisors, according to the letter filed by Coats.

Another N.C. Coats sites closed recently. In November, the industrial thread manufacturer cut 51 jobs, shuttering its Hendersonville plant, WARN reports show.

Coats officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Coats buys Pharr High Performance

In November 2019, London-based Coats Group said it would purchase Pharr High Performance as the Gaston County company exited the yarn business, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.

The sale, which closed in early 2020, included six North Carolina manufacturing sites in McAdenville, Kings Mountain, Marion and Hendersonville, as well as its corporate office in Charlotte.

At that time, Pharr HP had about 350 employees.

Pharr, founded in 1939, also sold Pharr Fibers & Yarns and Phenix Flooring to Mannington Mills, based in New Jersey.

Pharr still operates its real estate and hospitality businesses, and last fall, expanded into investments with Greenleaves Capital, according to the company’s website. The company is known for orchestrating Christmas Town USA, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to see the holiday lights display.

Coats has 17,000 employees in over 50 countries, according to the company’s website. Revenue last year for the publicly traded company was nearly $1.6 billion, according to Coats.

This story was originally published March 6, 2023, 1:47 PM.