The Cannon Mills Company is an American textile company founded by James William Cannon, based in Kannapolis, North Carolina. The company was founded in 1888 and went bankrupt in July 2003. The Cannon brands were later purchased by Iconix Brand Group.
Video Cannon Mills
Company Name
Cannon Mills was bought four times, and has four names.
- Manufacturing Company Cannon (1888-1921)
- Cannon Mills Company (1921-1983)
- Fieldcrest-Cannon Corporation (1983-2001)
- Pillowtex Corporation (2001-2003)
Maps Cannon Mills
History
Cannon Manufacturing Company
In 1887 James William Cannon founded Cannon Manufacturing Company in Kannapolis, North Carolina. The goal is to produce basic textile products rather than making yarns or products in which other companies can produce. His company produces towels that are sold under the brand name "Cannon Towels". Ten years later, he opened another factory in Concord, North Carolina.
In 1905, Jim Cannon designed and purchased 600 acres (2.4 km) of land in northwest Cabarrus County, North Carolina. The land was once used as a cotton plantation. He devised a plan for a small factory village with a home for the workers. In 1907, the first factory finished west of Lake City. The factory, now known as Plant 1, opened in 1908 after a short two year cotton shortage.
In January of the following year, the Cannon Manufacturing Company has employed 840 people at the single Kannapolis plant. James William Canon and his company built hundreds of homes for factory workers, as well as world-class YMCA facilities. At that time, he has the largest membership in the world. He also donated land and money for school construction and education. That year, the first school, McIver opened. Cannon set up shop, business, and church. Cannon also donated funds to the Cabarrus District Government to repair the main road to Kannapolis from Concord. In 1917, James Cannon set up a life insurance policy for all Cannon employees. This has never been done for company employees.
1921 is an important year for Cannon Mills Company. The strike took place in the Charlotte area of ​​North Carolina, localized, affecting all the textile mills in the area. Charles A. Cannon was in charge of Cannon Mills, because his father was trying to recover from illness. The correspondence between James W. Cannon and his son reveals that Charles did an exemplary job handling and did not recognize union activities. On June 1, 1921, members of the United Trade Union Workers' Union broke down. Employees are starving because unions fail to support strikers. Although Cannon called the National Guard to "keep the peace," the strike ended because union officials fled from the city after trade union corruption. Cannon Mills was not unionized during this effort, which made all the generations of World War I skeptical of unions.
J.W. Cannon was recently elected as Chairman of the Board and his son, Charles Albert, was appointed president of the Company. Later that year, Jim Cannon developed an unknown disease in the winter of 1921. He reportedly died at 6:00 pm on December 21, 1921. He died at the same time when the afternoon whistle blew because of time to stop at the plant. She is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in downtown Concord. The Cannon Manufacturing Company was handed over to the president and the youngest son, Charles. At the time of J.W. The dead cannon, Kannapolis residents of about 6,000 residents and the factory employs about 15,000 workers.
Company grow
With Charles Albert Cannon in charge, Cannon Mills Corporation is now entering its golden year. In 1924, funds and land for James William Cannon High School were donated from the company. Then in 1928, Charles Cannon arranged nine textile companies into a large company, Cannon Mills. 300,000 towels are produced every day, and soon became the largest producer of textile products in the world. Charles Cannon retired in 1962 at the age of seventy. Donald S. Holt replaces Cannon as chairman of the board, and sales and profits continue to rise. The one million square foot towel distribution center was built in 1962 and 840,000 sq., Ft (78,000 m 2 ). the sheet distribution center was built in the early 1970s. Charles A. Cannon died on April 1, 1971 because of a major stroke. Don Holt became president of Cannon Mills in 1962 when Charles Cannon became chairman of the Council. Holt was president until 1974. Holt helped modernize his management style and fought hard to combat the negative public image of Cannon Mills.
Fieldcrest
In 1911, Marshall Field & amp; The company, Chicago department store, acquired seven plants in Eden, North Carolina (then known as Spray) from Benjamin Franklin Mebane, a local businessman who has been funded by Field's. In 1916, Field began construction at Fieldcrest Mills in Fieldale, a 1,600-acre (1,6-mile) grinding mall near Martinsville, Virginia, completed in 1919. Field then purchased more factories to supply retail and wholesale operations. In 1935, James O. McKinsey, then chairman of Marshall Field's, a Chicago department store, reorganized 24 Field textile mills into one manufacturing operation, called Fieldcrest, with headquarters in New York City. In 1953, Fieldcrest was separated from Field's.
Fieldcrest-Cannon Corporation and Pillowtex Corporation
In 1982, California billionare David H. Murdock purchased Cannon Mills Company and a land of 660 acres (2.7 km 2 ) of nearby properties. Murdock proposed a rebuilding plan to companies and communities that included the renewal of downtown Kannapolis (now Cannon Village) and the construction of the new YMCA. On November 6, 1984, the city of Kannapolis was officially established, becoming the city of Kannapolis. Also that year, David Murdock built a new YMCA. The following year, the company and all its Bath and Bedding divisions were purchased by Eden, North Carolina-founded Fieldcrest Mills, Incorporated, for less than $ 250,000,000. It became Fieldcrest-Cannon Corporation. The new Plant One chimney, painted white since its construction in 1950, is painted in maroon, also bearing the name of the company. Many union issues are generated after purchase.
In September, 1997, Fieldcrest-Cannon was sold to Pillowtex Corporation for $ 700,000,000. Sales are falling, and problems begin to emerge when Pillowtex loses money. According to the former CEO of Pillowtex, its biggest product buyer, Wal-Mart, encouraged the company to move production abroad [to remain competitive] but Pillowtex refused. It is attenuated by competitors (producing abroad at a lower price) and when the price is no longer competitive stop (or lose) the opportunity to supply Wal-Mart.
Three years later, in November 2000, Pillowtex filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. In May 2002, Pillowtex emerged briefly from bankruptcy for about a year, but things kept rolling.
On July 30, 2003, Pillowtex Corporation announced the total bankruptcy of the company. During the night of July 30, 7,650 people became unemployed (4,340 in Kannapolis alone). This is the largest permanent layoff in the history of North Carolina state. The bankruptcy announcement also includes an agreement for Pillowtex assets to be sold to GGST LLC, a joint venture of four liquidation firms (SB Capital Group, Gibbs International, Gordon Brothers Retail Partners and Tiger Capital Group), for $ 56 million, subject to bankruptcy court approval.
Post-bankruptcy
On October 7, 2003, Pillowtex won the approval of a bankruptcy court judge to sell the company's assets, including machinery and brands, to GGST LLC for $ 128 million. The brands of "Cannon", "Royal Velvet", "Charisma", and "Fieldcrest" became SB Capital's intellectual property. The "Cannon" and "Royal Velvet" brands have been licensed by Li & amp; Fung, headquartered in Hong Kong. The "Fieldcrest" branded product has reappeared as "exclusively on Target". Iconix Brand Group bought the Pillowtex brand in 2007.
On December 10, 2004, it was announced David H. Murdock & amp; Cooke won a 264-acre land auction (1.07Ã, km 2 ) with an offer of $ 6.4 million ($ 4.25 million in cash and $ 2.12 million).
Demolition
Started in June 2005, workers from the Wrecking Company D.H. Griffin began the demolition of Plant 1, an area as large as The Pentagon. In November 2005, the eastern half of the Towel Distribution Center was blown up, and the main office building dismantled by the end of the year. Lake City is drained and filled.
On March 24, 2006, the remaining part of the Towel and Bleachery Distribution Center was exploded. More than 1,200,000 square feet (110,000 m 2 ) were destroyed, making it the third largest building explosion in US history. A few months later, on August 10, the chimney exploded. On November 8 of that year, the 268-foot-tall water tower was demolished, officially ending the Cannon Mills era.
Legacy
The Cannon family is very generous in donating funds to projects in the area. These include:
- Kannapolis City, North Carolina
- The Cannon Memorial YMCA
- Cannon Hall, Appalachian State University
- Cannon School
- Cannon Village
- Cannon Foundation
- Cannon Reservation, Camp John J. Barnhardt, Central NC Council of Boy Scouts of America
- Charles A. Cannon Pool at Baker Sports Complex at Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina
- J.W. Dormitory Cannon at Davidson College
- Cannon Charlotte Country Day School Campus
- University of North Carolina at Charlotte's Fieldcrest Cannon Foundation Scholarship
North Carolina Research Campus
The North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC) was built at the former Cannon Mills Company site. Construction began in 2005, and the campus opened in 2008. NCRC is a private-public company involving major universities in North Carolina and private investment. The NCRC is a scientific and economic revitalization project that includes the former Cannon Mills plant and the entire downtown area of ​​Kannapolis, North Carolina.
See also
- Kannapolis, North Carolina
- Kannapolis City School
- Cabarrus County, North Carolina
- North Carolina Research Campus
References
External links
- Company history from FundingUniverse.com
- 1928 photos
- For more photos of Cannon Mills and Kannapolis, visit Cannon Mills on Facebook
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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