Mike Gannaway, former CEO and president of Pillowtex, will join other business leaders for a panel discussion about the impact a global economy is having on jobs in the United States at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 15 in Whitley Auditorium on the Elon University campus. The session is free and open to the public.
Other panelists will include Sid Smith, former CEO of the Hosiery Association in Charlotte, and John Maynard, president of Burlington-based Tower Mills, Inc., which announced in September 2003 that it would cease operations. Nancy Cassill, a professor in the College of Textiles at North Carolina State University, will serve as moderator.
Textile giant Pillowtex filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August and closed five plants in North Carolina, resulting in the loss of approximately 5,500 jobs. The company, which makes sheets, blankets, rugs and home fashions, will close 16 plants and eliminate almost 6,500 jobs in the United States and Canada.
In an Aug. 27 Raleigh News & Observer article, Gannaway blamed soft consumer demand and foreign competition for Pillowtex’s demise.
“Cheap imports are flooding the U.S. market and driving down prices, while global sourcing has created a new business model for textile companies that we are unable to replicate without substantial investments,” Gannaway said.
The discussion coincides with Elon’s Winter Term theme, Living in a Global Age. Students in a variety of specialized courses during the three-week January term examine issues and topics from a global perspective.
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