Fieldcrest Mills, Inc.

Product Details

Historical Context

In 1911, Marshall Field & Company, the Chicago-based department store, acquired seven mills in Eden, North Carolina (then known as Leaksville, Spray & Draper) from Benjamin Franklin Mebane, a local entrepreneur who had secured financing from Field's. In 1916, Field's began construction on Fieldcrest Mills in Fieldale, a 1,600-acre mill town near Martinsville, Virginia, which was completed in 1919. Field's later purchased more mills to supply its retail and wholesale operation. In 1935, company chairman James O. McKinsey reorganized the firm's 24 textile mills into one manufacturing operation, called Fieldcrest, with headquarters in New York City. In 1953, Fieldcrest was spun off from Field's into a freestanding business.

In 1982, California billionare David H. Murdock purchased the Cannon Mills Company and its 660 acres of surrounding property. Murdock proposed a redevelopment plan to the company and the community which included the renewal of downtown Kannapolis (now Cannon Village) and the construction of a brand new YMCA. On November 6, 1984, the Town of Kannapolis was officially incorporated, becoming the city of Kannapolis. Also that year the new YMCA opened. The next year, the company and all of its Bath and Bedding division were bought by Eden, North Carolina-founded Fieldcrest Mills, Incorporated, for somewhat less than $250,000,000. This became the Fieldcrest-Cannon Corporation. The newer smokestack of Plant One, painted white since its construction in 1950, was repainted maroon, also bearing the corporate name.

In September, 1997, Fieldcrest-Cannon was sold to the Pillowtex Corporation for $700,000,000. Sales slid, and problems began to appear as Pillowtex lost money. According to a former CEO of Pillowtex, its largest product buyer, Wal-Mart, encouraged the company to move production overseas [to remain competitive] but Pillowtex refused. It was undercut by competitors (producing overseas at lower prices) and when its prices were no longer competitive stopped (or lost) its opportunity to supplying Wal-Mart.

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