Walmart to invest in 442 textile jobs at Renfro Corp. in Fort Payne (Alabama)

WHNT-TV ^ | February 9, 2017 | Ben Brice

[2ndDivisionVet]

FORT PAYNE, Ala. – Walmart has announced plans to begin purchasing supplies from Renfro Corporation, a local company based in Fort Payne.

Walmart says it will begin to source materials from American-based companies like Renfro Corporation in an effort to invest in U.S. manufacturing. Renfro Corporation believes the investments will create around 442 jobs in textile manufacturing, namely by providing Walmart with athletic socks.

Renfro Corp. currently has 605 employees and is the largest employer in Fort Payne’s hosiery industry, according to the DeKalb County Economic Development Authority. These new jobs will push the company over the 1,000 mark.

Additionally, Walmart will partner with six universities across the country to help advance sustainability in the production of textiles.

Across the country, Walmart said it plans to create up to 34,000 jobs and spend $6.8 billion in capital investments. The investments will go towards construction and remodeling stores, as well as expansion of new services such as its new Online Grocery Pickup.

The company’s announcement also follows a commitment made in 2013 to purchase an additional $250 billion in American-made, sourced, and assembled products through 2023. Walmart believes the commitment will produce around one million jobs.

[Arm_Bears]

More winning.

Not tired, yet.

[Hostage]

Wuw! And some thought the textile industry was forever lost to America.

If Walmart is smart, they will utilize a lot of robotics along with those 442 jobs to crank up production of high quality materials thereby keeping the retail prices the same or lower.

With massive corporate tax cuts on the way, Walmart is not doing this only for the good of the country. This decision can be rightfully attributed to President Trump.

I see a labor shortage coming at some point. Smart Americans in school will do all they can to learn and master robotics.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Great!!!

[Perchant]

I buy a lot of clothes at Walmart and I want them to make more shirts that are long without being wide. I have to buy 2x shirts just to get the length to cover my ass crack and I only need a large size for girth so I end up with a blouse. Their idea that the girth has to match the length in size every time is stupid. And make it heavier threaded so it doesn’t have to be ironed because I don’t have an iron and just want to throw the shirt on and have it look ok. Okay?

[sockmonkey]

I think this is great news. I wish that the textile manufacturing would come back to the northeast. Just reestablishing a small part of what now comes from China, Germany, and India would be thousands of American jobs.

[Will88]

In the past, Fort Payne, Alabama was known as "The Sock Capital of the World". Of course, it's declined like most industries in the US. Good to see Walmart sending some business their way to bring back some of the production.

The decline of the former 'Sock Capital of the World' is a story of lost jobs and empty mills

[RegulatorCountry]

Renfro Corporation is actually headquartered in Mt. Airy, NC. Their remaining domestic manufacturing operations are in Ft. Payne, AL.

[FrankR]

My home town, a cotton mill town, was wiped out in the early 60s by the overseas trend. In the south, there were countless mill towns, supplying jobs to its citizens without the hassle of a three hour daily commute.

I’d like to see manufacturing decentralized again, back to the small and medium towns where people live. It would save the roads, the oil, the time, and tedium of driving. Cars would last longer, too.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

But...but... Walmart is EVIL! We’ve been TOLD that by the Leftists for...forever! Well, except when Hillary! was on their Board of Directors...

Worlds collide! ;)

[JaguarXKE]

Mayberry!

[rktman]

🏎. Oldsmobile 442? Guess no such luck. 😜

[2ndDivisionVet]

I almost bought one of those when they were a hatchback. Remember that?

[metmom]

Try LL Bean.

Their stuff IS pricey but you can get the size you want.

[SamAdams76]

I also highly recommend LL Bean. Yes, they are pricey but their clothes last at least 5x longer than what you get off the rack in regular department stores. I have LL Bean shirts in my closet that date back to the Bush Administration - the first Bush.

So it's actually cheaper in the long run to buy LL Bean. I don't know what their secretis but their clothes are very durable.

[rktman]

All too well. Good old days.

[Boowhoknew]

I had a conversation today with a man who works at Masonite, which makes a lot of pressed wood products for building. This man told me and another man that the company had told lower level managers that Masonite would be hiring more aliens soon. I asked him to repeat that so I could be sure I heard right. This plant is down the road from three Howard Industries factories which had a class action lawsuits by blacks about 10 yrs ago for hiring discrimination, preferring Mexican illegals over black women. Howard makes electrical transformers. Was allowed during the Haley Barbour governorship to overlook the law. It was federal team, ICE , that came in and arrested a lot of Howard Industry workers.About 2007 or 2008.

[blam]

I'm still boycotting Sams:

Americans Boycott Sam’s Club After CEO’s Racist Comments About White Males

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Fort Payne, Alabama used to be the “Sock Capital of the World”. If you owned white tube socks chances are they were made there. No more - NAFTA sucked most of those jobs to Mexico. Good on Wally World to bring some work back there - they can use the jobs. When I lived there, we could go to the mill stores and get huge bags of socks for a couple of bucks - used to use them as gifts and giveaways.