Gildan-Prewitt company officials announced plans to relocate 30% of its knitting equipment and all its remaining wet processing operations in Fort Payne, ALÂ to Honduras. About 130 of Fort Payne's remaining hosiery workers will lose their jobs by the end of the year, according to The Fort Payne Times-Journal.
In 2007, Gildan Activewear bought the Prewitt hosiery plant in Ft. Payne for $125 million.
In late 2009, Gildan announced it would also close its distribution centers in Fort Payne and move those operations to Charleston, S.C., resulting in the loss of about 120 local jobs.
About a year ago, Gildan phased out sock finishing operations in the U.S. due to poor economic conditions and overseas competition, which cost about 750 Fort Payne employees their jobs. The sock finishing operations were also consolidated at Gildan's plants in Honduras.
At the time Gildan completed its buyout of V.I. Prewett and Son in Fort Payne in 2007, Prewett had 1,302 permanent employees and 89 temporary workers. After the C.S. Bell shutdown, about 300 local Gildan employees will remain, Gosselin said.
