CARR MOVES HAT PLANT TO CHAFFEE

CHAFFEE -- Carr Textiles Inc. has decided to hang its hat in Chaffee.

Carr Textiles Inc., a manufacturer of hat components and materials, signed a five-year lease with the city for the old Thorngate building on Main Street. The lease has five, five-year renewal options that could put the growing company in Thorngate for 30 years.

Chaffee City Administrator Ron Eskew said the 75-employee operation has outgrown its facility in Oran.

Eskew said the company expects to double its employment within the next five years.

He said all of the employees will be kept on but the company is expected to hire locally as it expands.

Eskew said some concessions were made by the city to bring Carr Textiles to Chaffee but he would not discuss those concessions in detail.

This is the company's third relocation because of expansion in 16 years of business, Eskew said.

The city had been in negotiations with Carr Textiles since Dec. 19. The lease was signed earlier this week. Eskew said the Chaffee Industrial Development Corp. was instrumental in landing the new business.

Eskew said he talked to Tom Dirnberger, Industrial Development Agency president in Oran, about the company. Dirnberger told him that Oran was sorry to see the company go but it was a beneficial move for both towns.

When Carr Textiles moves out of its present site Venture Productions, a larger business that has been wanting to expand, will probably take over where Carr Textiles was, Dirnberger said.

Dirnberger said the city of Oran had been attempting to build Carr Textiles a bigger building to move into. Financial constraints made that option impossible. He said Venture Production might be expanding out to 120 employees by the end of the year. An associated company, Needle Works, might also be moving to the Oran building.

"We hate to see any business leave Oran," Dirnberger said, "but this really worked out real well for everyone."

Chaffee has agreed to improve the docking bays at the 70-year-old Thorngate building and alter the floor space before Carr Textiles begins its move.

Doug Hargrove, Carr Textiles' plant manager, said the company will begin to move immediately. The physical relocation will take three to four months.

Hargrove said the age of the building is not a problem because the structure has been well maintained.