Today we ventured to Glen Raven, Inc. for an informative visit on the premier fabric manufacturer and marketing company in the textile industry. Glen Raven is comprised of three different divisions called Trivantage, Custom Fabrics Worldwide, and Technical Fabrics Worldwide. Although the business has been family owned since its founding in 1880 by John Quinton Grant, it is soon going to change ownership and thus business strategies as well. What is primarily manufactured often depends on the era and is constantly changing. While in its early years Glen Raven manufactured cotton duck awning fabrics and pantyhose, they now manufacture quite a bit of fabric for graduation caps and gowns along with the material found on the interior roof of many American cars. They also make major contributions to products in the furniture, protective, military, filtration, mining, sailing and geosynthetic departments. We heard an employee of the company say that, at one point, they manufactured copious amounts of material for football jerseys and now that makes up less than 1% of their fabric. Not only is the company global, but they sell to 150 different countries and have facilities in China, India, and soon Brazil. They have 27,000 employees, with about 17,000 of those being in the United States.
Glen Raven’s mission is “enhancing life for global consumers with the world’s most innovative fabric-based, market-driven solutions.” To meet this criteria, the company values and is comprised of enthusiastic and engaged associates, all of whom bring a unique creativity to the table. Glen Raven has a fairly diverse customer base in that they are located in all different parts of the world and have numerous brands. Like our previous stop to LabCorp, this trip made me realize the amount of people who own things manufactured by Glen Raven and the presence they have in today’s economy. While they have many different types of customers, they are similar in that they all share the value of a high quality, visually attractive material, and high grade performance. Because Glen Raven makes a point to constantly meet this expectation, the relationship between them and their customers is stable. The “results” for the company are positive as they are never complacent; they embrace change and deliver profitable growth for a brighter future. This is reflected through the 15 million dollars they invested in a new facility and equipment in Burlington. Furthermore, Glen Raven is a successful business because they not only care about their customers, but they ensure ethics and safety in the workplace and value confident shareholders. Although these values previously mentioned highly contribute to the company’s success, their plan is executed via effective marketing and customer feedback. They have about 100 different websites, all of which are updated frequently and help their users achieve a goal. They marketing department often performs call surveys to better understand their customer base and use that information to help them market their materials. The business even has “vision leaders” spread throughout the company to ensure that each portion is working towards their goal. Overall, I believe that they successful because they have true business leaders and a talented administration. They pointed out to us that they recently changed markets as they excited where customers wanted cheap products because China was dominant in that field. I think that reflects their knowledge of their position in the economy and how they know how to get to where they want to go.
Besides that I couldn’t really hear what the guide was saying during the factory tour, I had a pleasant experience at Glen Raven as it was cool to see what an impact a manufacturing company in little Burlington, NC has on our hobbies and everyday lives.
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