Chaffee's Carr Textile Corp. moving to Sikeston facility

SIKESTON, Mo. -- Sikeston's old Brown Shoe facility is getting a new start.

Sikeston city officials announced Wednesday that Carr Textile Corp. has bought the building to expand its business operations.

"This is a multimillion-dollar project for Carr Textile," Sikeston Department of Economic Development director Ed Dust said. "The operation they are moving is coming out of Chaffee."

The manufacturing and distribution operation in Chaffee, equipped for rerolling, biasing, slitting, die cutting, sewing and plastic extrusion, outgrew the 100,000-square-foot building there, Dust said.

"The size of the old Brown Shoe building is approximately 430,000 square feet," he said.

Dust said Carr Textile will initially have a minimum of 25 employees at the facility in Sikeston, but the building has "long-term growth potential" for more jobs from both Carr Textile expansions and from other businesses leasing space from Carr.

"It is great for the city of Sikeston to take the recently acquired Brown Shoe building and get a company like Carr Textile in there turning it into an asset and putting jobs back in the community," said Mayor Jerry Pullen.

Brown Shoe Co. announced the closing of its distribution center at 103 S. Acres Drive in Sikeston in March 2012, losing 155 jobs.

The city acquired the vacated building from Brown Shoe in May, Dust said.

To find a company that had the need for the facility and the ability to take on such a large asset so soon after acquisition was fortunate, Dust said.

Established in 1973 by Don and Ruth Carr, Carr Textile is a converter, importer, distributor and wholesaler of cotton, polyester and blended fabrics. The company is owned and operated by a second generation, Mike Carr and Steve Carr.

"It has been a great pleasure for me to work with a family-owned business like Carr Textile, a long-established company, and to welcome them to our community," Dust said.

The company's in-stock programs consist of various fabric including twill, chino, bull denim, canvas, hopsack, poplin, sheeting, printcloth, osnaburg and buckram. Its fabrics are used by an assortment of manufacturers to make caps, apparel, aprons, bags, outerwear, emblems, industrial and automotive products. The company stocks more than 3 million yards of fabric among just more than a dozen warehouse shipping points in the U.S. and abroad.

Headquartered in Fenton, Mo., Carr Textile acquired the headquarters business unit from Western Textile Products in 1999 to enhance its product offerings.

In 2007, Carr Textile acquired Saxon Textile, which added a number of new stock fabric programs and capabilities to its line, such as SaxTwill, Gangster Stripe, SaxPop, Tudor and others.

When Russell Fabrics closed weaving operations in 2009, Carr Textile worked with the company to acquire all inventory from Russell Fabrics and coordinated a transition of business from Russell Fabrics to Carr. Carr Textile continues to offer Russell Fabric programs in pin cord, junior cord, seersucker, oxford and school plaids.