Betty Godsey and Lennie Cecil operate machines making fire-resistant Kevlar simplex material at the SSM Industries Inc. plant in Spring City, Tenn.A local textile manufacturer is building a $3 million, job-creating expansion, indicative of a rebound in an industry that hemorrhaged more than half its area jobs in the past 10 years.
SSM Industries, a flame-resistant fabric manufacturer, will add 13 jobs to the Spring City area by the end of the year and hopes to grow that number to 25 as its factory expansion swings into full production mode.
“We’ve had lean times like anybody else, but now we’re doing well. That’s why we’re expanding,” said Phil Chandler, SSM’s vice president for development. “We’re reinvesting for the future.”
For the past decade, that future has looked grim for textile manufacturers across Tennessee and Georgia. Georgia shed more than 58 percent of the industry’s jobs, down to 18,856 from 45,513, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The industry in Tennessee also was hit by major losses, dropping nearly 62 percent to 3,637 jobs from 9,469 10 years earlier.