This article was in the local newspaper today 5-5-01, so I'm retyping it. I'm sure it can be found on the internet somewhere.

Spartan International, a textile company that has operated in Spartanburg for more than a century, closed suddenly Friday putting 1200 workers in the Carolinas and Georgia out of work.

General Electric Capital Corp seized the assets of the former Spartan Mills after defaults on financial agreements, a GE spokesman said.

Officials closed operations at SIX mills and the corporate office here Friday morning.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley1@netzero.net), May 05, 2001

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Spartan International closes mills in three states, laying off 1,200 SPARTANBURG (AP) — Spartan International, a textile company that has operated here for more than a century, closed suddenly Friday, putting 1,200 workers in the Carolinas and Georgia out of work.

General Electric Capital Corp. seized the assets of the former Spartan Mills after defaults on financial agreements, a GE spokesman said.

"The management of the company made the decision yesterday to offer us peaceful possession of the assets, the collateral behind the loan," said John Oliver, a spokesman for GE in Stamford, Conn.

Officials closed operations at six mills in the Carolinas and Georgia and the corporate office in Spartanburg at 8 a.m. Friday. Telephone calls to the company's headquarters were unanswered.

Spartan Chairman Walter Montgomery Jr. would not talk about the situation Thursday with Spartanburg's Herald-Journal newspaper. He did not return a phone call Friday.

"We worked hard for several months trying to save the jobs of the 1,200 associates at Spartan International," President Barry Leonard said. "We tried day and night to do that. It's a shame this is the result."

Leonard blamed the company's problems on the economic slowdown and imported products.

"The current economic recession has severely impacted our business with drastic reductions in new orders received," he said. "Inventories have grown despite reducing prices and production."

Spartan had been a customer of GE since June 1999 but had trouble with financial agreements as early as December 1999, Oliver said.

"The economy is just not forgiving to the textile mills lately and these guys are a victim of that," Oliver said.

In addition to the Spartanburg plant, other operations were the Rosemont Plant in Jonesville; the Jefferson Plant in Jefferson, Ga.; the Cleveland-CaroKnits Lawndale Plant in Lawndale, N.C.; King Finishing in Statesboro, Ga.; and J.P. King Manufacturing in Augusta, Ga.

The King mill opened in Augusta in 1882 and employed more than 300 people to make cotton textiles for hospitals. Workers were told of the closing when they arrived at work Thursday and that they could work their shifts or leave.

By the third shift at 11 p.m., word had spread and most workers only came in to pack their belongings.

Many of the 70 headquarters workers left quickly with their belongings Thursday. One carried a banker's box, while another had two briefcases, and a third had long, rectangular packing boxes under each arm.

GE paid the final payroll Friday, Oliver said.

Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said Friday that he was aware of the situation.

"Beginning Monday, our staff will meet with employees to take their claims for unemployment insurance, and to help them access services designed to get them back to work as quickly as possible," Thurmond said.

Spartan International began in 1890 with a single plant in Spartanburg. It is the third major textile employer here to announce closings and cutbacks this year. The others were Inman Mills and Mayfair Mills

http://state.infi.net/content/columbia/2001/05/04/region/04spartan.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 05, 2001.