ATMI President Talks about the Changing Face of the U.S. Textile Industry

Today's U.S. textile industry is high tech and globally competitive, important to this nation's economy and an interesting and exciting place to work. Those were the key messages delivered in a speech by the president of the American Textile Manufacturers Institute (ATMI) at the annual meeting of the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance.

ATMI is the national trade association for the U.S. textile industry. Member companies operate in more than 30 states and process nearly 75% of all textile fibers consumed by plants in the United States.

Doug Ellis, chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based Southern Mills Inc. and ATMI president talked about the changing face of the U.S. textile industry. "That did not happen overnight," explained ATMI's Ellis. "We first became very proficient at listening to the customer. We put quality first, and all of our consumer research confirms that our customers are confident that the quality of U.S. textiles is second to none. By investing more than two billion dollars a year over the past 10 years, we have moved from being labor intensive to being capital intensive."

Changes in the industry have been especially dramatic over the past 20 years, said Ellis. "It is important for people to know how we have changed and what we have accomplished."

For example, he said many people are unaware of the textile industry's importance to the nation's economy. He pointed out that the textile, fiber and apparel complex is second only to the automobile industry in contribution to the U.S. economy, and the complex, which employs 1.4 million people, represents eight percent of all U.S. manufacturing employment.

According to Ellis, being globally competitive and high tech means there are a number of interesting and exciting career opportunities for talented young people not only in plants but also in development labs, quality assurance labs, finance and data processing departments.

Ellis concluded his remarks by saying the U.S. textile industry needs to do a better job of communicating just how much it has changed. He urged members of the audience to "be proud of your industry, get the facts together about what we have accomplished, have faith in our future, and then spread the word. We need to toot our own horn."