The end of textile import quotas was the end of Springs Industries Inc. in Fullerton.
Fort Mill, S.C.-based Springs Industries last month closed its 200,000-square-foot Fullerton plant and laid off 270 workers.
Company officials said the maker of bed and bath products no longer can compete with cheaper products coming in from China and elsewhere, especially after the end of textile quotas on Jan. 1.
The facility used to make bed comforters and other home furnishings.
“It had been operating in an environment that has become increasingly challenged due to import pressures,” said Ted Matthews, a Springs spokesman. “Imported products for those lines can be purchased by our retail customers or other suppliers for less than what we can make the products for.”
The Fullerton operation was more costly than the company’s other U.S. facilities, Matthews said.
“We had to reduce our domestic capacity,” he said. “To do that, we had to take out the higher cost facility first.”
The plant’s workers, most of them Hispanic, got severance packages based on seniority. Some packages last up to six months, according to Matthews.
The company supplies products to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. Springs also makes products under license featuring Harry Potter and Nascar. Along with big discount retailers, Springs sells through catalogs and department stores.
Matthews said the company’s lease at the Fullerton facility is set to expire this year. Landlord RREEF Funds LLC, a San Francisco-based unit of Germany’s Deutsche Bank AG, is seeking tenants for the building.
For more on this story, see the March 7 print edition of the Orange County Business Journal.
