In response to growing demand for Sunbrella® fabrics woven with specialty yarn colors and constructions, Glen Raven Custom Fabrics is creating a new yarn plant in Burlington, North Carolina. The new operation, which represents a $10 million investment, is being designed specifically to meet customers’ requests for increasingly diverse and highly decorative Sunbrella fabrics. Allen E. Gant Jr., president and CEO of Glen Raven, Inc., says, “Innovation remains the driving force at Glen Raven, and this latest investment will ensure that we are applying the latest technology within a creatively designed production environment.”

The new plant will be located in an existing 130,000–square-foot facility that formerly operated as Glen Raven’s Ultra Spun division. It will be equipped with the latest in automated yarn-manufacturing systems and configured around a manufacturing model engineered to support high levels of flexibility and customization.

Retrofitting of the 130,000–square-foot facility has begun, with a projected completion date of late summer 2013. Glen Raven employees currently working at the company’s existing Link Spinning facility in Burlington will transition to the newly renovated facility, which will result in 30 new positions—for a total workforce, at the new plant, of 80. Planning is underway for repurposing the Link Spinning facility.