Textile Manufacturing Industry Profile

The US textile manufacturing industry includes about 9,000 companies with combined annual sales of about $60 billion. Major companies include Guilford Mills, International Textile Group, National Spinning, Parkdale Mills, and Unifi. The industry is concentrated: the 50 largest companies generate more than 60 percent of revenue.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand is driven by the domestic apparel industry and consumer demand for home furnishings like carpets, furniture, and curtains. The profitability of individual companies depends on efficient operations. Large companies have economies of scale in production for high-volume items. Small companies can compete successfully by producing specialized textiles. The industry has become more automated but is still labor-intensive: average annual revenue per employee is about $150,000.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

Major products are yarns and threads, fabrics, carpets, and curtains. The industry produces yarns and threads out of natural (wool and cotton) and synthetic (plastics) materials. Yarns and thread are used to produce fabrics that are woven or knit, finishes fabrics by dyeing or coating them, and makes fabrics into simple finished consumer products like rugs, carpets, curtains, linens, and textile bags. Fabrics account for about 30 percent of industry revenue, carpets 20 percent, yarns and threads 15 percent.

Textiles are made in factories (still called mills because they were among the earliest industrial users of water power) using highly specialized, automated machinery, mainly yarn spinning machines, knitting machines, and various looms. The combination of a large number of possible yarns ...